see http://touteroyale.wordpress.com/2008/07/25/gay-prince-visits-sweden/ Gay prince visits Sweden July 25, 2008 by Sofia Rainbow flags are flying around the Swedish capital of Stockholm as the country hosts the annual Stockholm Pride and EuroPride 2008, and in the centre of attention stands a prince from India! Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil of Rajpipla was one of three speakers at the opening ceremony that took place this evening as the ten-day long festival focusing on homo, bi- and transsexual issues kicked off. This morning the Prince, who is on his first visit to Sweden, participated in a press conference that gave the Swedish media a chance to get to know him. After seeing the EuroPride program upon his arrival, the Prince who was initially not planning on staying on, decided to remain in Stockholm for the whole ten days of events. - I’m looking forward to interesting exchanges. Many people in Sweden seem interested in India and I want to find out how you made things happen in Sweden. How did it start to move? How did the acceptance grow? The Prince, son of the current Maharaja of Rajpipla and heir to the centuries old throne, was brought up in a world of privilege and protection far away from the reality of the people. Although India is today a developing republican democracy, the former ruling families are still treated as if they were rulers of their thrones and the Gohil family is now different but lives in palaces surrounded by servants and honoured by their subjects. Following in the family’s tradition, the Prince received a conservative and very traditional upbringing followed by a thorough higher education, but all this time he never really knew who he was. Unsure about his sexual orientation and what homosexuality really was in a country where such acts are forbidden, the Prince entered an arranged marriage with Rajkumari Chandrika Kumari, daughter of Raja Dilip Singh of the Jhabua princely state in hope of getting over his phase and pleasing his surroundings. The marriage was a disaster and ended with divorce after fifteen months, still unconsummated. But still hoping for his son to have a family of his own and heirs of his own, the Maharaja and his wife set out to find their son a new wife shortly after. This proved to be too much for the Prince who was hospitalised for a nervous breakdown in 2002. In an interview, the Prince explained what happened: - Then I was getting treatment in the hospital by this psychiatrist and while he was treating me, I came out to him through one of the counselling sessions and he was very, very understanding and he said, ‘There’s nothing wrong with you. You should be proud of your sexuality.’ And it was he who actually volunteered to tell my parents about myself. It was through him I came out. It took a few years before the Prince went public with his new-found sexuality, tired of hiding his real identity to everyone, but when he did in a local newspaper in 2006 - it made headlines not only in India but around the world. Although people in his hometown burnt his portraits and his parents initially cut all ties with their son, accusing him of dishonouring the dynasty and being involved with “activities unacceptable to society”, the Maharadja has with time reconciled and accepted his son and heir. The Prince’s mother though, the Maharani, has had a much harder time accepting that her son was born with another sexual orientation and tries to avoid him as much as she can. As something of a royal celebrity and probably being the only open gay prince in India, Manvendra Singh Gohil today works actively in education and prevention around HIV/AIDS via his own organisation, the Lakshya Trust. In 2006 he was also honoured with a prize from the United Nations for his work, and in October 2007 he was a guest at the Oprah Winfrey Show. The Prince does not regret his coming out and feels that he has earned himself respect from his people for the work he has done both for education, health hand jobs in the Rajpipla state - and for his work with HIV/AIDS and gay issues in India. __________________________________________________________ Not happy with your email address?. Get the one you really want - millions of new email addresses available now at Yahoo! http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/ymail/new.html