World’s first openly gay prince, who opened up his palace for LGBT people, hung condoms on trees, was last seen raising $400,000 during the NYC Pride Parade

Jul 9, 2019, 16:41 IST

Credits: AHF

Ten years on, Prince Manvendra is set to raise as much as $400,000 from a private fundraiser at New York City to build a shelter home for LGBT people in India.
He came out as a gay prince in 2006 after which he turned into a LGBT right activist in the country.

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, who became the world’s first open gay royal to come out of the closet in 2006, is now fighting the rights for LGBTQIA+ community in India. He is the crown prince of Rajpipla, which was once a princely state in Gujarat, India.

His experiences motivated him to work for the rights of all the LGBTQIA+ community in India, to the extent that he is raising $400,000 to open a centre.

“Nobody was on my side. Everybody was against me.” He told Business Insider Today

“The first reaction that came out to the media and the world was that my effigies were burnt by the people of Rajpipla, who respected me as royal,” said Gohil in an interview with BBC.

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India’s only gay prince..so far, Manvendra Singh Gohil, came out to the public in 2006. After he revealed his sexuality, the whole town protested against him. His own family accused him of dishonouring the clan.

Like any other Indian royal, the Prince, had been involved in an arranged marriage to Chandrika Kumari for 15 months.

He then made his appearance on Oprah Winfrey show in 2007 where he said he had no regrets of coming out. He also expressed his desire to help people by raising awareness about sexuality and AIDS.

He was seen at the NYC Pride parade where 150,000 people gathered on 30th June to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the infamous police raid on the Stonewall Inn.

The Prince hosted a private fundraising while he was in New York City to raise as much as $400,000 that would help him build a centre for LGBT people in India.

The centre is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2019 and will cater to more than 70 people.

He also made headline for hanging condom packets in public toilets, trees and public parks in order to spread awareness on safe sex.

Learning from his own experience, he also opened the doors of his ancestral palace for LGBT people who are shunned by the society.

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