After years of struggle and mental distress due to his sexuality, India’s first openly gay prince eventually married his husband in 2013.
Being gay is still considered a taboo in many parts of the world, and many communities are not accepting of homosexuality. The brunt of this thinking was faced by Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, who is India’s first openly gay royal.
His heartbreaking story throws light on how the gay population is often treated across the world due to the stereotypical and regressive mindset of many. The story of Manvendra Singh Gohil is one that will give you hope, and also raise awareness about the treatment of the LGBTQ community.
Gohil, who is an Indian prince who is the son and probable heir of the honorary Maharaja of Rajpipla in Gujarat, had to endure a lot of backlash from his society and family for being openly gay, but is now stepping and fighting for the rights of others.
The price was forced into an arranged marriage with a woman due to his sexuality and was also forced to endure years of intensive conversion therapy. He eventually broke free from the shackles of society and married his husband in 2013.
Manvendra Gohil, while on Oprah Winfrey’s show, said, “I thought that after marriage everything will be all right, that with a wife, I will have children and become "normal" and then I will be at peace. I was struggling and striving to be "normal." I never knew and nobody told me that I was gay and [that] this itself is normal and it will not change. That this is what is called homosexuality and it is not a disease.”
Prince Manvendra said that he knew he was gay from the age of 12, but came out to the public when he was 41, through an interview with a local newspaper. At that time, homosexuality was still illegal in India, under Article 377.
Gohil told Insider, “The day I came out, my effigies were burnt. There were a lot of protests, people took to the streets and shouted slogans saying that I brought shame and humiliation to the royal family and to the culture of India. There were death threats and demands that I be stripped off of my title.”
In a recent interview with Insider, the prince said that the Maharaja and Maharani of Rajpipla publicly publically disowned him as their son when he came out as gay, saying that he was cut off due to his involvement in activities “unsuitable to society”.
Prince Manvendra was also forced to endure electroshock therapy to “convert” him and make him straight, which left him traumatized and depressed for years. After the terrible ordeal that he went through, Gohil was left contemplating suicide.
Despite his own story, Prince Manvendra is now striving to make a change. He is fighting for a ban on conversion therapy and has founded the Lakshya Trust, a charitable organization with the aim to improve the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in Gujarat.
READ | Advocate Saurabh Kirpal to be India’s first gay judge; know all about him
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 "‘Faced shock therapy, death threats’: India’s first openly gay prince forced to marry woman, shares his story")
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