Indian Prince Discusses Disowning Openly Gay Son

Argh! Blogger ate my first post on this topic! I'm going to look into Moveable Type or some other more stable blogging platform. I don't understand if Google owns Blogger and Gmail why Gmail can have very timely auto-saving while Blogger repeatedly eats draft blog posts. Come on, Blogger, don't be evil!

I missed the original reports of this story in June while I was in Cuba doing research. Apparently, Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil of Rajpipla (in the state of Gujarat) was disowned by his father Raghubir Singh Gohil after becoming the chief patron of Lakshya Trust, the largest HIV/AIDS organization in the region, as well as one of the most well-known faces of homosexuality in India. The family is widely ackowledged as one of the richest and most powerful royal families in India.

Now, the father is speaking out. In an interview with the Times of India, Prince Raghubir says:

I was in an awkward situation and didn't know how do deal with it. Relatives from all over the country called me up. Rajpipla is a conservative place. Women still cover their heads with a pallu; sex is a taboo topic. I was in the line of fire.

[...]

But it was all the more difficult considering we come from a royal family. I understand some people are different, I accept it. I had never interfered in his life, but we are still a conservative society.

Hopefully the Prince had independent sources of income separate from his wealthy and influential royal family. One has to admire his courage at coming out and being an activist knowing that his family could disown him.