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Uh oh… somebody’s sayin’ Malcolm was gay for pay? Manning Marable’s 594-page biography Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention was released on April 4th, and the book has aroused more conversation about the slain Civil Rights leader’s sexuality than a little bit, but folks should know Marable isn’t the first to say Malcolm X had same-sex relations. Bruce Perry, with his 1991 biography, Malcolm: The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America has that honor. Blogger Irene Monroe recently wrote about the topic, and she raises the point that some of the “relations” Perry claims Malcolm had were of the “gay-for-pay” variety: According to Perry, Malcolm’s same-sex dalliances date back to childhood, where he enjoyed being masturbated or fellated. In his 20s, Perry informs us, Malcolm had a sustained sexual relationship with a transvestite named Willie Mae, and also he had sex with gay men for money, boasting he serviced “queers.” Monroe, who is a lesbian activist, scholar and public theologian, cautions the LGBTQ community from jumping to embrace Malcolm as one of their own, explaining that the context in which Malcolm allegedly engaged in said behaviors is important to consider: I am not heterosexist apologist, but if we as LGBTQ people use this era of Malcolm’s life to claim him as gay, we misunderstand the art and survivalism of street hustling culture. Similarly, if we, as African Americans, use this era of Malcolm’s life to dismiss that he engaged in same-sex relationships, many will miss the opportunity to purge ourselves of homophobic attitudes. When Malcolm came to Boston to live with his older half-sister, Roxbury’s Ella Little Collins, he was 16, having dropped out of school at 15. With no job skills and looking for the most expedient route to acquire money, Malcolm peddled cocaine, broke into homes of Boston’s well-to-do, gambled big at poker games, and unabashedly serviced gay men for pay. While it can be argued that Malcolm’s same-sex encounters were not solely financially motivated, let us also not dismiss that the only evidence we do have is the context in which he was. We all know from Alex Haley’s book that Detroit Red was a wild cat… but hustlin’ a*s? Does this new information, if it is true, change the way we look at Malcolm X? Should people overlook his homosexual dalliances, if he had them, as merely a means of survival? Could Malcolm be proof that gay people can turn straight? So many questions… Source

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Was Malcolm X Hustlin’ Gay Sex For That Paper?