Ever wondered what happens to your money when you put it in a vending machine? Find out!

The latest issue of The Pink Humanist, the only LGBT magazine for Atheists, Humanists, Sceptics and Freethinkers, is out now. This issue has a strongly international flavour, with articles on Christianity and Fascism in the Ukraine, The Exemption of Gays in Turkey from Military Service, and Religious Law, Democracy and Human Rights in Africa the last by the courageous Nigerian Humanist Leo Igwe. It also includes two special features on gay marriage, and the transcript of an important speech, Humanists and People of Faith, by Angela Eagle MP, who is in Labours Shadow Cabinet as the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Our June newsletter is ready for you to download. [Just click here](http://www.suffolkhands.org.uk/files/1/SH&S News June 2012.pdf “SH&S news June 2012”) (pdf). For maps and directions to our meetings venue, click here (pdf).

Sanal Edamaruku, President of the Indian Rationalist Association, is a tireless campaigner for science and against superstition. He is widely known for his exposure of the tricks used by self-professed God-Men and gurus and has often been on Indian television explaining the everyday science behind supposed miracles. After one such exposure he pointed out that the blood oozing from a statue of Christ at the Catholic Church of Our Lady of Velan Kanni in Vile Parle, Mumbai was in fact water from a leaky pipe the Catholic Church of Mumbai made a formal complaint about him to the Mumbai police.

Here’s some stuff I read on the Internet, to save you the bother of looking for it – just click on the links for more. If you’ve read anything you’d like to share, you could tweet us. You don’t tweet? Well, there’s Facebook (see link right), or just contact us via this website. In the latest edition of Humanist News, Alom Shaha writes about his book, and how some publishers rejected it because it was about a rejection of Islam.

Our guest speaker will be John Minns from the Woodland Trust. We’ll be in the Inter-Faith Centre, West Building, UCS. [Click here for detailed directions](http://www.suffolkhands.org.uk/files/1/UCS map & directions.pdf “Meeting directions”) (pdf).

After what I said on the radio today about disestablishment (see previous post), I find that Norway has set an example. I read, In an unprecedented move, the Norwegian Parliament has voted to abolish the state-sponsored Church of Norway with a constitutional amendment. If they can do it, why can’t we?

I was invited by BBC Radio Essex to comment on [an opinion poll commissioned by the BBC on “the Monarchy’s role in faith today”](http://www.suffolkhands.org.uk/files/1/BBC Defender of Faith public poll 16April2012 topline findings.pdf “BBC poll on the monarchy’s role in faith today”) (pdf), that appears to show that the Queen should retain “a faith role”. The other contributor to this item was the Bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cottrell. The BBC’s press release says,

The British Humanist Association‘s Head of Public Affairs, Pavan Dhaliwal, signed [a letter to the Observer](The proposed Fullfledge school - Steiner, or not? “Letter to the Observer”) on behalf of the association opposing Maharishi and Steiner free schools. The letter was also signed by Melanie Byng, campaigner against Steiner free schools, who wrote a post about them on this website. The letter begins: Since the formation of the coalition, a lot of public concern has been expressed over the potential establishment of creationist Free Schools.

A discussion on BBC Radio Essex about the monarchy and religion. Contributors are Margaret Nelson from Suffolk Humanists & Secularists and the Bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cottrell. If you’re not in Essex or South Suffolk, you can listen via the BBC Essex website or listen again on iPlayer.