Rajpipla, a small city in Narmada District of Gujarat, will soon have a centre for the LGBTQ community. Manvendra Singh Gohil, erstwhile prince of Rajpipla princely state, revealed this at the recently held Delhi International Queer Theatre & Film Festival.
Rajpipla, a small city in Narmada District of Gujarat, will soon have a centre for the LGBTQ community. Manvendra Singh Gohil, erstwhile prince of Rajpipla princely state, revealed this at the recently held Delhi International Queer Theatre & Film Festival.
The centre, he said, aims to provide economic and social empowerment to sexual minorities and offer skilled-based training so that they can earn a decent livelihood.
“Gradually the gay community is trying not to succumb to the pressure to get married, but once people reveal their sexuality at home, their family members fail to understand and shun them. And since people in India are dependent on parents for financial and emotional needs until late youth, it leaves them with two options - either agree with the parents or be left without resources. I want the community to be independent,” said 52-year-old Gohil, who came out 11 years ago and faced a social boycott.
The traumatic consequences of coming out that he faced is the reason Gohil wants to set up the community centre, which is also focused on providing social support.
“When I came out in 2006, my own family disowned me and other royal families boycotted me. I see similar things happening to other people and they are left devastated." Gohil, however, stated that he consciously decided to be on his own before he came out in public about his sexuality and advocates the same to youngsters.
"Fortunately, I was on my own financially, and since we grew up with a nanny, I wasn’t very emotionally attached to my parents. But when they saw me doing well on my own and being making it to Oprah Winfrey’s show thrice and recently to Keeping Up With The Kardashians, they accepted me back. Now, the royal family wants selfies with me!,” chuckles Gohil, AIDS Healthcare Foundation's Goodwill Ambassador.
The community centre Gohil plans to set up would sprawl the 15-acre property he owns in Rajpipla and would offer a shelter home, training and workshops and also host motivational talks. A rudimentary form of the centre is already up and running in Rajpipla, with an inmate from New Jersey in residence, but Gohil is looking for funds and ideas to develop it further.
“The structure is already there; it is on the banks of the Narmada in a very peaceful and non-polluted part of India. It runs entirely on solar energy and can accommodate about 10 people at present. The land is not an issue; the problem is resources and I am fundraising across the world. When money comes, I will build more homes but by the end of 2018, it will be functional and start housing people,” says Gohil who wants similar centres to be built across the country to create a strong network of the LGBTQ community.
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 "Manvendra Singh Gohil, prince of Rajpipla")
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