Portrait
Manvendra Singh Gohil
Born
23 September 1965Ajmer, India
Prince and LGBTQ activistIndia

Manvendra Singh Gohil

The first openly gay prince in the world was disowned by his family – and turned his palace into a shelter for LGBTQ people.

Manvendra Singh Gohil was born into the royal family of the former princely state of Rajpipla in Gujarat. He grew up in privilege, but isolated, and only realised as a young adult that he was gay. In 1991 he married a princess; the marriage was never consummated and ended in divorce.

In 2006 he came out in an interview with a Gujarati newspaper. The reaction was fierce: his effigy was burned in Rajpipla, and his mother publicly disowned him in a newspaper advertisement. But he did not retreat. His appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2007 made him known around the world.

Through his charity, the Lakshya Trust, he works on HIV prevention and supports gay men and trans people in Gujarat. In 2018, after India’s Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality, he announced that he would open the grounds of his palace as a shelter for LGBTQ people rejected by their families.

He has also spoken out against conversion therapy and for the acceptance of LGBTQ people within Indian families and traditions. He is married to an American man.

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