Gay Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil is campaigning for India to protect LBTQ Indians from conversion therapy.
“I was myself a victim of conversion therapy,” Gohil told Forbes. “From my parents. When I came out, the first thing they tried to do was convert me. They wouldn’t accept me as a gay child.
“They tried to ask the doctors to operate on me. They took me to religious leaders to ask them to cure me.” His parents pressured Gohil into electroshock therapy and an arranged marriage that failed.
Gohil says the situation is worse for LGBTQ women in India: “Lesbians are treated so badly, I’ve known cases where the family member will rape the child to prove she can have sex with a man. That is supposed to prove you are heterosexual.”
Today Gohil operates the LGBTQ+ Lakshya Trust charity.
Born Perfect is a survivor-led program created by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) in 2014 to end conversion therapy by passing laws across the country that protect LGBTQ children and young people, fighting in courtrooms to ensure their safety, and raising awareness about the serious harms caused by these dangerous practices. https://bornperfect.org