India’s first openly gay prince was forced to marry a woman, here’s his story

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, India’s first openly gay prince, was forced to marry a woman as part of shock therapy. After facing a backlash from the society, including his family, and physical torture, he is now fighting for the rights of others like him.

After enduring years of torturous conversion therapy, he eventually married his husband in 2013.

Prince Manvendra knew he was gay at the age of 12. But he revealed it at the age of 41 in an interview to a local newspaper in 2006, when homosexuality was illegal in India. 

“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,” Prince Manvendra told Insider.

“They thought it was impossible that I could be gay because my cultural upbringing had been so rich. They had no idea that there’s no connection between someone’s sexuality and their upbringing,” he said.