- India's first openly gay prince revealed his parents attempted to subject him to conversion therapy.
- He told Sky News the extreme measures they planned included brain surgery and electroshock therapy.
India's first openly gay prince said his parents tried to make him undergo conversion therapy in a interview with Sky News.
Speaking from Jaipur, India, on Friday, Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil told the news channel that his mother and father would've gone to go to extreme lengths to try to make him straight.
"My parents were planning to open up up my brain, perform a surgery on my brain," he said. "They were planning to make me undergo electro shock therapy."
As his parents planned for him to receive the treatments in the US where conversion therapy has been widely discredited, he was ultimately able to avoid being subjected to such practices.
"Fortunately for me and fortunately for them the American Psychiatric Association had said that homosexuality is not a mental disorder, so they were not successful," he added.
Nevertheless, Gohil said he suffered severe "embarrassment" and "humiliation" while enduring the "pain and suffering" of his parents' futile attempts to change his sexual orientation.
"It was an absolute case of discrimination, violation of human rights, whether I'm a prince or not a prince, parents have no right to put their children into such kind of a torture," Gohil said.
Gohil is the founder of the Lakysha Trust, an LGBTQ+ charity based in the Indian state of Gujarat. According to his bio on the website, his sexuality was revealed to his family in 2002 after he was hospitalized with a nervous breakdown.
When he became comfortable enough to speak publicly about his sexuality in 2006, it said his family accused him of bringing dishonor to their clan and led to people in his home state of Rajpipla burning his effigy.
But Gohil continued to speak out about his experience, the bio continued. In 2007, it said he was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and told her he said had no regrets about coming out publicly.
Conversion therapy remains a widespread issue in India, Gohil says
The American Psychiatric Association refers to conversion therapy as "sexual orientation change efforts" or "gender identity change efforts" to differentiate it from evidence-based therapy practices.
According to Reuters, more than 20 states in the US have laws that can subject health care providers to fines, license suspensions, and license revocations for trying to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of people under the age of 18.
In India, however, Gohil said conversion therapy was still a widespread issue: "It happens to so many individuals in India, I can give you so many numerous examples where parents are literally torturing their children."
There have been a few signs of progress in recent years such as Tamil Nadu becoming the first Indian state to issue reforms against the practice in 2021, the Independent reported.
Shinjiro Atae
Gohil isn't the first Asian public figure to shine a light on issues facing the LGBTQ+ community over the past week.
As The New York Times reported, Japanese pop star Shinjiro Atae came out publicly at a performance in Tokyo on Wednesday following a two-year hiatus.
Speaking to the crowd of over 2,000, Atae, 34, said he had struggled for years to accept himself but finally had the courage to publicly say he is "a gay man."
"I don't want people to struggle like me," he added.
Japan is the only G7 country where same-sex unions are not legal. In June, the country passed its first law on sexual orientation and gender identity seeking "promote understanding" and avoid "unfair discrimination," according to Human Rights Watch.
However, it noted that the law falls short on the comprehensive nondiscrimination legislation equivalent to other developed economies that Japanese rights groups such as the Japan Alliance for LGBT Legislation have called for.