Gay Lives of Ghandi and Malcolm X

TWO NEW BOOKS on religious icons have come out in the past two weeks. The first, on Mahatma Gandhi who is still so revered in India that the book about him has been banned in one of India's states and may yet be banned nationwide. The problem, say those who have fanned the flames of popular outrage this week, is that Joseph Lelyveld's new book on him, "Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India"" (March 29) suggests that the father of modern India was bisexual. In the USA, similar flames of popular outrage sprouted this past week over Manning Marable's new book, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention” (April 4) suggesting the same bisexual identity.