Manvendra Singh Gohil, the prince of the erstwhile Rajpipla state in Gujarat who publicly announced in 2006 that he was gay, said his parents sought medical help when they got to know about his sexual orientation.
Gohil said his parents tried to “convert” him through brain surgery.
In an interview with Sky News, the former prince said it was an absolute case of discrimination and violation of human rights. He said his parents used to take him to doctors and even made him undergo electro-shock therapy.
“Whether I’m a prince or not a prince, parents have no right to put their children through [this] kind of torture,” he said.
However, Gohil’s parents bid to “convert” him failed when doctors in the US refused such kind of treatment, saying homosexuality is not a mental disorder.
“It didn’t happen but imagine how much harassment one has to go through, how much humiliation one has to go through, just to endure this pain and suffering at the hands of parents – and this is happening to so many individuals in India,” he told Sky News.
Gohil said he does not blame the people who are against him but it is their ignorance on this subject is to blame. “It is a lack of education, lack of awareness which causes people to be homophobic and bigoted… It’s our duty to educate them and to make them aware of the facts,” he said.
However, Gohil has now reconciled with his parents who have also gifted him 15 acres of land so that he can build a building for the LGBT community.
Gohil had also hailed the Supreme Court’s order decriminalising a part of IPC section 377, related to consensual unnatural sex, and said it had given him “true independence” 71 years after the country attained freedom.
Gohil has been working for the betterment of the LGBTQ community through his Lakshya Trust, earning the sobriquet “gay prince” from a large number of admirers.
The former prince of the erstwhile Rajpipla state had appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 2007 after he declared himself gay.
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