Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil.Photo: Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic

India’s Crown Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil attend the 3rd Annual Voice Awards at The Globe Theatre at Universal Studios on May 3, 2014 in Universal City, California.

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil of Indiais speaking out against gay conversion therapy, opening up about his own subjection to electroshock treatments and other practices in an effort to find a “cure” for his sexuality.

The 56-year-old prince, who came out in 2006 and is believed to be the world’s first openly gay royal, is fighting for a ban on the practice of conversion therapy in India, where homosexuality was illegal until 2018.

When Prince Manvendra told his parents that he was gay in 2002, “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 recently toldInsider.

His parents, the Maharaja and Maharani of Rajpipla, took him to medical practitioners and spiritual guides in an effort to change his sexuality.

“They approached doctors to operate on my brain to make me straight and subjected me to electroshock treatments,” he recounted.

The treatments left him feeling depressed and suicidal.

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil.SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty

In this photograph taken on December 12, 2016, “Prince” Manvendra Singh Gohil, India’s first gay royal and AIDS activist, speaks with an AFP reporter during an interview in New Delhi. A member of a royal warrior clan and heir apparent to the throne of Rajpipla in deeply conservative Gujarat state, Gohil uses his fame and status to educate the gay community about safe sex and their rights in a country where gay sex is a criminal offence.

Prince Manvendra said it’s “important” for people like him with a platform to speak out against the practice of conversion therapy and continue to campaign for its end.

“Now we have to fight for issues like same-sex marriage, right to inheritance, right to adoption. It’s a never-ending cycle,” he said. “I have to keep fighting.”

Manvendra, who married his husband in 2013 after a failed arranged marriage with a woman, recalled how his country reacted when he came out as gay, including his parents publicly disowning him.

“The day I came out, my effigies were burnt,” he said. “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 Singh Gohil.SAM PANTHAKY/AFP via Getty

Indian gay activist Manvendra Singh Gohil sings during the dubbing for Gujarati film ‘Meghdhanushya - the Colours of Life’ in Ahmedabad on November 5, 2011. The film, directed by K R Devmani is about the struggle and difficulties faced by homosexuals in society.

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Despite the backlash, Prince Manvendra continued to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. In 2018, The prince came up with the idea oftransforming his ancestral home into a support hubto financially and socially empower the community.

source: people.com