Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, India's first openly gay prince, has claimed that his parents sought medical help to "convert" him after he told them he was gay, Sky News reported, adding that doctors in India are still offering gay conversion therapy.
Prince Gohil the heir of Maharaja of Rajpipa in Gujarat, has approached the Supreme Court to try to get conversion therapy banned. He is the co-founder of the Lakshya Trust which takes up LGBTQIA issues.
Gohil was quoted by Sky News as saying that his parents visited doctors in the hope they could "perform a surgery on my brain, and even make me undergo electroshock therapy."
However, their bid ultimately failed because doctors in the US, where they sought the "treatment," refused to operate while pointing out that homosexuality is not a mental disorder.
"It didn't happen but imagine how much harassment one has to go through, how much humiliation one has to go through, just to endure this pain and suffering at the hands of parents -- and this is happening to so many individuals in India," he added in the interview to Sky News.
Conversion therapy, also known as 'cure' therapy, is when members of the LGBTQIA+ community are told that their identity is something that can be cured. Specifically, it means any kind of treatment or therapy that attempts to force a person to change the gender they identify with or their sexuality, Daily Mirror reported.
The report added that before its double U-turn the government had said: "There is no justification for these coercive and abhorrent practices and the evidence is clear that it does not work: it does not change a person from being LGBTQIA+ and can cause long-lasting damage to those who go through it."
According to Lakshya Trust website, Manvendra's homosexuality was revealed to his family by doctors in 2002 following his hospitalisation for a nervous breakdown.
However, it was when he talked publicly about his sexual orientation in 2006 that his family took action and accused him of bringing dishonour to the clan. The disowning, however, is likely to remain a symbolic act rather than legally enforceable disinheritance, given India's modern inheritance laws. He has been reunited with his father.
On 14 March 2006, the story of Manvendra's coming out made headlines in India and around the world. His effigies were burnt in Rajpipla, where the traditional society was shocked.