(Photo by Jeremy Williams)
ORLANDO | Coming out as a part of the LGBTQ community can be a difficult process, and it is a process made even more strenuous if you are the member of a conservative royal family.
Manvendra Singh Gohil, India’s openly gay prince, came out to his parents, the Maharana and Maharani of Rajpipla, in 2002. His parents did not take it well.
“I was a victim of conversion therapy by my own parents who wanted to convert me medically on religious grounds,” Gohil said while touring the Pulse Interim Memorial during a recent trip to Orlando. “I was subjected to a lot of public humiliation, shame, stigma and discrimination. My human rights getting violated by my own parents. As somebody who is the closest to you, that subjected me to this kind of pain, it was terrible.”
Gohil came out publicly four years later in 2006 and by doing so became the first openly gay prince in the world. In that time, he has become an activist for India’s LGBTQ community and has fought to ban conversion therapy around the world. He appeared on several episodes of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” throughout the 2010s and was on an episode of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”
Gohil says he is grateful to have this platform to fight for change in the community, not just change publicly but change in his personal life as well.
“I like to say my father’s homophobia is in transition,” he says. “My father has definitely changed and fully accepts and supports me. He is a full ally. My mother is still coming to terms with it.”
The 56-year-old prince was visiting Florida to see his husband of nine years, Duke DeAndre Richardson. Richardson, who is a U.S. citizen, moved to Fort Lauderdale at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic after India suspended all visas. While Gohil was visiting his husband in South Florida, the royal couple decided to come to Orlando to renew their vows at the Unity of Central Florida church.
“A friend introduced me to members of the church and we thought since we were celebrating our ninth wedding anniversary it would be lovely to renew our vows while we were here,” Gohil says. “I was really impressed with the church because it was so inclusive and it was a wonderful experience.”
While in Orlando, the royal couple also took the opportunity to meet with members of the LGBTQ community, including Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan, and to pay a visit to the Pulse Interim Memorial to honor to 49 lives lost in the 2016 shooting.
(Photos courtesy Sandi Hulon)
(Photos from Commissioner Patty Sheehan’s Facebook)
“Ever since this tragedy happened, I told myself if I am able to get to Orlando I must go to Pulse and pay my respect,” Gohil says. “I remember watching after it happened and how it brough people together from all backgrounds, from all cultures, whether you are LGBT, an ally or even if you don’t come from this community at all. I think it was a very important message that the community said that love will conquer everything; love conquers hate, love conquers phobia, love conquers hypocrisy.”
During his visit to the U.S., Gohil has been accompanied by a film crew that is documenting his experience.
“I was a part of a panel discussion and Nicole [Wallace, NBW Studios] was watching the discussion and was impressed by my story and reached out and asked if I would be interested in being a part of a film to document my life and my story,” he says.
The film is expected to be release in June 2023.
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