Our Global LGBT History: Spotlight on Manvendra Singh Gohil (Blog Series)

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil

Manvendra Singh Gohil was born September 23, 1965 in Ajmer and belongs to the royal family of the former princely state of Rapipla in India.

 He is the only known person of royal lineage in modern India to have publicly revealed he is gay. He is reportedly the world's only openly gay “royal” or member of a royal family. His parents attempted but failed to disinherit him after he revealed his homosexuality and since then his relations with the family have been strained.

Manvendra's homosexuality was revealed to his family by doctors in 2002 following his hospitalization for what was termed a “nervous breakdown” reportedly brought on by trying to fulfill his traditional princely duties which included embarking on a traditional and arranged heterosexual marriage. However, it was when he spoke publicly about being gay in 2006 that his family took action and accused him of bringing dishonor to the clan. They attempted to disown him. In the interim he has been reconciled and reunited with his father while is mother has remained harsh toward him. At least she stopped trying to take legal and public humiliation actions against her son.

The world became aware of Manavendra when he appeared as a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show on October 24, 2007. He was featured in the show entitled 'Gay Around the World'. He expressed that he has no regrets about coming out, and that he believes the people of his state respect him for his leadership in prevention and education around HIV/AIDS.

On his coming out, Manvendra has said, “I knew that they would never accept me for who I truly am, but I also knew that I could no longer live a lie. I wanted to come out because I had gotten involved with activism and I felt it was no longer right to live in the closet. I came out as gay because I wanted people to openly discuss homosexuality since it’s a hidden affair with a lot of stigma attached.”

n 2000, Manvendra started the Lakshya Trust, a group dedicated to HIV/AIDS education and prevention. A registered public charitable trust, Lakshya is a community-based organization working for HIV/AIDS prevention among men who have sex with men (MSMs). It provides counseling services, clinics for treatment of sexually transmitted infections and condom-use promotion.The trust also creates employment opportunities for gay men and support for other organizations for MSMs, and plans to open a hospice/old age home for gay men.

In 2007, Manvendra joined the Interim Governing Board of the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health, known as APCOM, a regional coalition of MSM and HIV community-based organizations.

Since July 2010, Manvendra has served as editor of the gay male-centric print magazine Fun. He has also largely been credited with the decriminalization of homosexuality in India in the mid to late 2000s.


(NOTE: Information for this post was obtained from Wikipedia and other sources.)