India's First Openly Gay Prince Is Fighting To Ban Gay Conversion Therapy

As the first openly gay prince of India, Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil is a proud advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community in India.

After the Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality in 2018, Gohil turned his palace grounds into a shelter for vulnerable members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

He also launched the Lakshya Trust - a community-led charity that aims to educate individuals about sexual tolerance, gender equity, HIV/AIDS and the LGBTQIA+ community in general.

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil. Source: Tatler

Gohil's advocacy stems from his own difficult past where he endured years discrimination from his family and the public.

In 2006 Gohil publicly came out as gay - this led to protests and even death threats.

"The day I came out, my effigies were burnt," he says, "there were a lot of protests, people took to the streets and shouted slogans saying that I brought shame and humiliation to the royal family and to the culture of India - there were death-threats and demands that I be stripped off of my title."

Gohil was also publicly disowned by his parents and forced to endure four years of torturous conversion therapy.

"They approached doctors to operate on my brain to make me straight and subjected me to electroshock treatments," he says.

Despite the hardship and prejudice, the prince has continued his crusade for equal rights.

He hopes to use his position as Prince of India to create a more accepting future for the LGBTQIA+ community in India.⁠

"It's important for people like me who have a certain reputation in society to continue the advocacy," he says, "we have to fight for issues like same-sex marriage, right to inheritance, right to adoption - it's a never-ending cycle, I have to keep fighting."

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Brisbane’s Citipointe Christian College Has Revoked Its Transphobic Enrolment Contract

This week Brisbane's Citipointe Christian College was called out for banning LGBTQIA+ people from their school.

Parents hoping to enrol their children had to sign a contract stating they agree with the school's discriminatory values and beliefs.

As stated in the contract this includes:

- "Any form of sexual immorality (including but not limited to adultery, fornication, homosexual acts, bisexual acts, beastality, incest, pedophilia and pornography) is sinful and offensive to God and is destructive to human relationships and society."

- "The Bible ties gender identity to biological sex and does not make a distinction between gender and biological sex. Accordingly, the College believes that by creating each person, God in his divine love and wisdom, gifted them their gender, as male or female."

- "Family begins with the covenantal institution and holy estate of marriage as ordained by God between a biological man (husband) and a biological woman (wife)."

- "We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other."

Queer activists protest outside the Citipointe Christian College. Source: The Guardian

Parents were given a week to sign this contract before the new term starts.

Principal, Pastor Brian Mulheran said the school was simply being upfront about their values and beliefs.

"We have always held these Christian beliefs and we have tried to be fair and transparent to everyone in our community by making them clear in the enrolment contract," he said, "we are seeking to maintain our Christian ethos and to give parents and students the right to make an informed choice about whether they can support and embrace our approach to Christian education."

But thanks to the nationwide backlash, Citipointe Christian College revoked its transphobic and homophobic student enrolment contract.

Comedian and podcaster Christian Hull used his platform to speak about this problematic school.

Despite the contract being revoked thanks to nationwide backlash, Christian says “the surface has just been scratched.”

Christian says he’s received thousands of messages from “former teachers, parents, students and parishioners” who recall experiencing and/or witnessing “horrific abuse” at the school.

“The organisation Citipointe formally known as the Christian Outreach Centre has a deep history of sexual assault cover ups and extreme homophobic practices,” he says, “the stories I have been told and the news articles and court transcripts I have read leave me starring blankly at the wall asking myself how this has gone on for so long.”

Despite introducing the Religious Discrimination Bill, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he doesn’t support the school’s actions.

He claims the bill will have an amendment so LGBTQIA+ students won’t be discriminated in schools.

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