Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil Recalls Growing Up As A Gay Man In The Royal Family Of Rajpipla

He is the 39th direct descendant of a 650-year-old royal dynasty which was established in 1370 AD. Meet Manvendra Singh Gohil who is the Crown Prince of Rajpipla, an erstwhile princely State of Gujarat. Gohil is the Chairperson and Co-founder of Lakshya Trust dedicated towards the empowerment of the LGBT+ community.

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Indiatimes spoke to Manvendra about his life, coming out struggles and growing up moments in the royal family.

For him being India¡¯s first openly gay prince, it's unsaid that Gohil¡¯s struggles would have been real. He shares, ¡°My life has been full of a lot of struggles, a lot of challenges, right since I've been a child. Not just because of my sexuality, but because I was born in a royal family.¡±

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¡°As a member of the royal family, people have expectations from us and we have to fulfil that as well as deal with our personal life. It's very difficult to do that and then have to have known that my sexuality is different. It's add on to our already going on struggles.¡±

Manvendra was married to Princess Chandrika Kumari of Jhabua for 15 months until he realised that his heart wanted something else.

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Talking about the same, Manvendra shared, ¡°That heterosexual marriage was not posed upon me. It was my own choice because, during that time, I wasn't aware of my sexuality. As I mentioned, I got married at 25, but I came to know about my identity at 30, which was five years later. But I realized that that marriage didn't work because I had no attraction towards the female.¡±

Manvendra then happened to connect with Duke DeAndre Richardson through social media and guess what he ended up marrying him in 2013.

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¡°We were only friends for almost three years. We had no intention of a relationship. It was the friendship which evolved into a relationship. Therefore, I call it very organic and natural. We have been now 10 years into a relationship, so we are doing good as partners. Imagine coming from absolutely different cultural backgrounds, and geographical areas, but still, we matched well.¡±

Gohil shares that his coming out story was no less than a Bollywood movie.

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¡°I faced all kinds of challenges, especially when I came out. A person in my case would have committed suicide a long time back. But I still managed to keep myself balanced and I managed to keep myself healthy and not stressed out and having the mental equilibrium. I remember when I came out, it was the Holi festival.¡±

Also Read: 'I Was Called A Psycho', Dutee Chand On Backlash After Coming Out As India's First Gay Athlete

Manvendra details, ¡°That day, my newspaper article came out and the people of the people of town, were furious. They made effigies of my photographs which came in the newspaper and they burnt my effigies in the fire, shouting slogans. There was a protest saying that you should be stripped of his title.¡±

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¡°He has humiliated it, put us all to shame not only the royal families, but the entire culture of India has been ruined. He has done a very shameful act and he should be should not be allowed by any of our social gatherings. He should be exiled, and so on.¡±

Manvendra revealed that three months later his parents disowned him publicly.

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¡°They brought out advertisements in the newspaper saying that we are hereby publicly discerning and publicly disinheriting our son from the royal family and the ancestral property because he is involved in activities which are not acceptable by society.¡±

Manvendra started receiving death threats from several people saying that ¡®I better keep my mouth shut, otherwise they will kill me.¡¯

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Manvendra then appeared in the globally acclaimed ¡®The Oprah Winfrey Show¡¯, not once or twice but thrice. Then he appeared on ¡®Keeping Up With The Kardashians¡¯. He shares, ¡°I think the Oprah Show was a turning point in my life. It made me an international advocate for addressing our issues.¡±

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¡°Kardashian show also made a miracle. After I did the show in 2017 and came back to India, all my cousins and nephews and nieces and my family members and a lot of friends who are homophobic towards me, came to me and said, Uncle, can we have a selfie with you? I said, Wow, a selfie with me?¡±

He continues, ¡°I was so sarcastic to them. I said, But am I not a criminal? They said, No, you¡¯re not a criminal. You¡¯re an angel. I said, My goodness, just one appearance on the Kardashian show can make you an angel from a criminal. Then hats off to these people who have helped to change the mindset of this youth.¡±

Manvendra struggles in the absence of equal marriage rights.

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He shares, ¡°Marriage rights for queer individuals is going to affect in a very positive way because first of all, I have been married for now 10 years. But my husband, when he comes to India, his status is just a foreign tourist. He has no other status in India.¡±

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¡°Even if we have bank accounts together, he cannot be a joint bank account holder. I cannot nominate him in the account or any fixed deposit or insurance or anything. This marriage getting legalized will definitely make life much easier for both of us, especially for him who¡¯s a foreigner, who has no security in India.¡±

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