India’s only openly gay prince discusses creating a centre for at-risk LGBT+ people
Un nouveau centre pour la communauté LGBT indienne.
Avec un code pénal dont l’article 377 interdit les rapports « contre l’ordre de la nature » et une pression sociale et familiale très forte, l’Inde est l’un de ces pays dans lesquels l’homosexualité est extrêmement marginalisée, et l’homophobie toujours fortement ancrée. Mais le prince Manvendra Singh Gohil est bien décidé à faire changer les choses…
Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil might have grown up in a vast and opulent rococo palace in prosperous Gujarat with servants responding to his every beck and call but it would be wrong to assume his life has been free of problems. The Indian prince, who is the son and probable heir of the Maharaja of Rajpipla in Gujarat in western India, was forced to shroud his sexuality from public view for years. Marrying a princess of Jhabua State in Madhya Pradesh in 1991, Prince Manvendra lived a lie and his matrimony remained unconsummated for its entirety.
A COMING OUT IN THE SPOTLIGHT
2. Unable to endure the secrecy, he eventually confided in his wife about his sexual orientation. Barely a year after the wedding she filed for divorce despite separation being virtually unheard of in India at the time and still massively taboo now.
3. Like many in India – where sex between people of the same gender is punishable by law – the 52-year-old kept his homosexuality a secret from everyone for many years after the divorce. In 2002 Prince Manvendra had a nervous breakdown and found himself in hospital. It was there that his psychiatrist told his parents he was gay. This did not go down well and his parents insisted his sexuality must be kept a secret. They tried to “cure” him with both medical and religious measures.
4. If this was not bad enough the prince’s life was thrown into yet further disarray and chaos after he publicly came out as gay. The revelation was not only breaking news all over India but also grabbed headlines worldwide. In his home state of Rajpipla, effigies of the prince