While some people would ensure their birthday party revolves around their existence, Indian Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil used his 42nd to celebrate India’s often over-looked gay communities:
A leading figure in India’s small LGBT civil rights movement and a vocal supporter of people living with HIV, Prince Manvendra invited gays and PWAs from all over India to celebrate his birthday at a party that featured gay musicians and artists.
It is the 10th birthday that the prince has celebrated this way, brightening the faces of hundreds of people who regularly suffer from discrimination.
Homosexuality is illegal in India, punishable by imprisonment and people living with HIV/AIDS are frequently shunned by their families.
For the prince the occasion allows people to interact and be visible. The two day party was extensively covered by the Indian media which usually treats gays with derision.
Manvendra’s family originally scorned him for coming out, but tensions have been eased in recent years. Despite their acceptance, the Indian government upholds – but rarely enforces – the colonial era Section 377.
afrolito
He’s cute, but needs to lose the vest ASAP.
SeaFlood
He’s my favorite prince…
faghag
Setting a good example, well done him.
Mrs Patrick Campbell
We would do the prince in a heartbeat! We sampled Indian sizemeat last in 1997 when a 19 year old student from India, studying in Santa Monica used to visit us for the superior ‘oral relief’ that only we could provide. He also fucked fish, which made it even hotter knowing that we were having a real man. To make a long story short: It was the size of our arm and very faintly ripe with cheese but we worked until we had our ‘reward’ – and you can be sure that not a drop was wasted!
hisurfer
I remember the articles about him being stripped of his titles when he came out – it’s nice to know that he’s been reinstated.
Paul Raposo
He is indeed a Prince among men. (Yeah, I know, but someone had to go there.)
ABC
Fuck the Government of India. Either it is blind to see the gay pride marches, gay rights activists, openly gay couples, law commission of india, planning commission of india, national aids control organization, former attorney general, gay open media, etc or it is deliberately trying to woo conservative votes.
reginald
Bonjour,
Je regarde actuellement un reportage sur lui sur NRJ12, je trouve son histoire touchante, il semble si attachant. Je lui souhaite de trouver l’amour, le vrai, celui que l’on recherche tous. J’aimerai trouver quelqu’un qui a des valeurs sentimentales comme lui. Je comprend aussi qu’il ait peur qu’on l’aime pour son titre. Je comprend ses craintes, je lui dis, cherches, tu trouveras surement l’amour. Je le cherche toujours aussi… Tu es un gay qui assumes et j’aime ca.
kevin (not that one)
Why am I not surprised that in a country where brides are burned alive for their dowry or married off to a 50 year old man at the age of 11 that gay people would be treated like shit.
Is there a correlation between the rate that heterosexual customs sink into depravity with the rate of homophobia?
strumpetwindsock
@kevin (not that one):
Can we cut the nationalist bullshit?
Suttee has been illegal for almost 200 years, and the age of consent there is 16, except for one state (and do you thing there is no underage sex here?).
Before you go calling India barbaric, look at how often they apply the death penalty as compared to the U.S.
I don’t think the point of this post was so we could brag about how much better we are than others, because it ain’t true… it’s just ignorant.
strumpetwindsock
Actually there’s a more recent update on this fellow:
http://www.queerty.com/just-like-coming-to-america-but-gay-20081224/