Was malcolm x gay

By Irene Monroe

(FILE PHOTO) On February 21 it will be the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination Of Malcolm X. ROCHESTER, NY – FEBRUARY 16: Former Nation Of Islam leader and civil rights activist El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (aka Malcolm X and Malcolm Little) poses for a portrait on February 16, 1965, in Rochester, New York. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Before any of us in the lesbian, male lover, bisexual, and trans communities laud Malcolm X as our new gay legend or castigate him for being a black heterosexist nationalist on the “down low,” we might need to closely examine the recent revelation that for a period in his life Malcolm X engaged in same-sex relationships.

Also, before any of us in the African-American community flatly ignore these assertions as part and parcel of a racist conspiratorial propaganda machine that is out to discredit our brother Malcolm, we need, at least, to hear these nagging claims.

And this time hear them coming from one of our possess – Manning Marable, a renowned and respected African American historian and social critic from Columbia University.

Sadly, Marable died just days before the release of his magnum opus, an exhausti

Malcolm X

Malcolm X (el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz) was a human rights activist and Muslim minister who is considered a key figure of the US Civil Rights Movement.

Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska in 1923, as a fresh man he was sentenced to 10 years on charges of grand larceny, breaking and entering, and firearms possession. While incarcerated, Malcolm converted to Islam and adopted the name Malcolm X. He joined the Nation of Islam and rose to become one of the organization’s most influential and well-respected leaders by the time he was released on parole in 1952.

After his release, Malcolm X used his platform to advocate for causes such as black empowerment and supremacy, and often criticized other civil rights leaders for their stance on nonviolent protests and the hope of racial integration throughout the country. Due to his status in the widespread eye and as an influential member of the Nation of Islam, he was subjected to years of surveillance from the Federal Bureau of Enquiry in an try to catch him on charges of communism.

Malcolm X met his wife, Betty Sanders, in 1955 at one of his speaking engagements, and after she continued to exhibit up to his lectures a

The hidden gay past of US black nationalist leader

By Peter Tatchell

Was Malcolm X gay or bisexual? Some black activists are enraged by such a suggestion. But since there is nothing wrong with being gay or bi, why the fuss?

Malcolm X’s sexuality is not the most important thing about him. It is just one minor fragment of a man who was an extraordinarily powerful and operative voice for African-American communities. But what makes his sexual orientation significant are the attempts to conceal and deny it.

Controversy has been stirring since the publication of Bruce Perry’s acclaimed biography, Malcolm: The Experience of a Man Who Changed Black America (Station Hill, New York, 1991). Based on over 400 interviews with Malcolm’s closest boyhood and adult friends, Perry suggests that the US black nationalist leader was not as robustly heterosexual as his Nation of Islam (NoI) colleagues possess always insisted.

Malcolm X, real name Malcolm Little, joined the militant Muslim NoI in 1949, attracted by its teaching that Allah would deliver jet people from white bondage. By the 1960s, Malcolm had developed NoI ideology in brand-new directions, becoming America’s head spokesperson for black co

Was Malcolm X Gay?

It was claimed in this display that a new biography of Malcolm X claims that he was gay or bisexual. I did some preliminary Googling, and I have not read the biography. Apparently this new bio claims that Malcolm had a long term relationship with a white businessman, and that he supported himself in part before his incarceration where he converted to the Nation of Islam as a gay hustler.

I browse Malcolm X’s autobiography, and I am aware that some of what he presented in that book is also false. And Haley, his collaborator in writing the work, appears to possess plagiarized much of his other work Roots from another novel. So it is difficult to know how seriously to hold that presentation of his life.

How strong is the evidence that Mr. X was bisexual? Is this perhaps real, or is it an instance of the over-eagerness of the gay group to claim someone prominent as one of their own, extended after he is safely expired and not able to refuse it?

I believe one of Malcolm X’s daughters has denied it, which I suppose is understandable no matter if it is true or false. And IIRC homosexuality is strictly forbidden by Islam, and was by the Nation of Islam bac