Meet the world's first openly gay prce Manvendra Sgh Gohil • GCN

Contents:

• MEET THE WORLD'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PRCE MANVENDRA SGH GOHIL
• FIRST OPENLY GAY PRCE SPEAKS OUT ON MISSN TO END CONVERSN THERAPY: 'I HAVE TO KEEP FIGHTG'

MEET THE WORLD'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PRCE MANVENDRA SGH GOHIL

Proudly holdg the tle of first openly gay prce the world, India’s Prce of Raipla, Manvendra Sgh Gohil, had a long journey to beg accepted for his sexualy. Dpe facg many personal hardships when g out durg a time when homosexualy was illegal the natn, he still bravely mpaigned for LGBTQ+ equaly India, helpg untls people through his activism.

Growg up, Manvendra nfsed that he always had homosexual feelgs, yet didn’t unrstand what they uld mean bee of his upbrgg. He rells, “I thought after marriage I would be alright bee I never knew and nobody told me that I was gay and this is normal. Homosexualy is not a disease.

Followg his unsuccsful marriage, the gay prce ntued to stggle wh acceptg his sexualy while livg a nservative fay and suffered a mental breakdown 2002.

FIRST OPENLY GAY PRCE SPEAKS OUT ON MISSN TO END CONVERSN THERAPY: 'I HAVE TO KEEP FIGHTG'

His parents phed the doctors to “fix” their child yet even when the traed profsnals explaed to them that homosexualy is not a disease, Manvendra’s parents phed to send him to spirual guis and electric shock therapy ssns.

Later 2005, the Indian royal was approached by a young journalist, Chirantana Bhatt, where he exprsed all his mental anguish about beg a closeted homosexual man. Although the gay prce had his life turned upsi down, publicly g out led him to achieve greater heights the long n.

He was ved on The Oprah Wey Show 2007 to feature an episo lled ‘Gay Around the World’. “I me out as gay to a Gujarati daily bee I wanted people to openly discs homosexualy sce ’s a hidn affair wh a lot of stigma attached. In 2000, he started the Lashkya Tst, a muny anisatn dited to HIV/AIDS tn and preventn among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex wh men (gbMSM).