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If you’re gay and in the UK, your blood is tainted. That, anyway, is the view of the organisation that spends much of its time and budget appealing for that precious commodity: blood.

A round-up of what's been happening on our Pink Triangle blog.

Say it fast and you can make out the play on words: Anal Iced Bible. OK, the A needs to be pronounced as in “pan”, not “pain”. You get the idea. This month we take a look at Baal's Bum ...

What constitutes freethought? Is it thought that is free of religious baggage? Or is there more to it? Dean Braithwaite has been thinking freely about the issue.

If you’re watching the current BBC drama series Apparitions – starring Martin Shaw as an exorcist called Father Jacob – you’ll certainly have to suspend disbelief if the Devil doesn’t have a place in your belief system. But why does religion have an obsession with demons and devils? Matthew Thompson examines religion’s obsession with “evil spirits”.

The One Law for All campaign against sharia law in Britain was launched at the House of Lords on International Human Rights Day, 10 December 2008. Maryam Namazie tells us more about it.

Is there more to the debate over religious schools than meets the eye? The subject certainly generates a lot of anger among atheists and secularists. The Runnymede Trust has just put out a report called “Right to Divide?”, which, among other things, recommends an end to selection on the basis of belief. Here, Simon Barrow of the Ekklesia think tank analyses the arguments.

The National Blood Service claims it wants to protect patients from HIV, the alleged cause of AIDS, but its indiscriminate ban on gay donors is flawed, says Peter Tatchell. (This article first appeared in the Guardian’s “Comment Is Free” section on 1 December 2008, World AIDS Day.)

This is the third in a series of reprints of articles from earlier issues of the print version of G&LH.

This article created a firestorm of controversy when it was first published in 2003, including personal attacks from several prominent humanist members of the AIDS establishment who were outraged that we dared even to question the HIV/AIDS hypothesis.

Following the publication of the article by John lauritsen on the HIV/AIDS hypothesis in G&LH in 2003, we received enormous criticism. We published some of this and responses to it in a subsequent issue and we have reproduced it again here. The original article, Death Cult, is also republished as Out of Print, Part 1.

Last month we  carried a feature about how a book of poetry titled darkness is where the stars are by the Welsh poet Patrick jones created a censorious outcry from Christian Voice, who successfully prevented a signing session by the author at Waterstones bookshop in Cardiff.

Here are two poems from the book that we particularly liked.

For the best part of 10 years, Roy Saich has run Humanists, the independent website for agnostics, atheists and enquirers, which offers free impartial information about the humanist ethical tradition. Here, he explains where the Christmas crib comes from and tells us why humanists celebrate Christmas.

Do you have a preference for how you’ll be seen off? Would you mind having a religious funeral, even if you’re an atheist, for the sake of your loved ones? Would you insist on one that reflected your own beliefs – or lack of them? Whatever you decide, it seems there’s very much a pick-and-mix approach these days, as Neil Richardson reports.

Who might be the next tenant of the TARDIS? Well, actually, Who will be the . . . Oh, let’s let Stephen Blake explain!

Warren Allen Smith talks this month about suing God, hairspray and wigging out, Matthew Mitcham and remembers the late Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio.

Steven Dean has an appointment with the doctor. Sorry, the Doctor. Or wishes he had. Wishes he had an appointment with the Doctor who’s on his Christmas list, that is. Or one of them. Or all of them. Oh, you’ll have to read him to find out what this is all about.

This month we introduce our new cartoons page where we offer you a selection of topical 'toons.

Events happening soon near you!

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