A Princely Gay Man - Manvendra Singh Gohil of India Comes Out

Laguna Beach, CA - October 29, 2009
Richard Ammon - GlobalGayz.com

No question that rank carries privilege and privilege carries fame. This time it belongs to an Indian prince who came out as gay in 2005 and shocked his family and fascinated the Indian public.

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil of the Rajpipla region in the state of Gujarat, the westernmost state in India (Mahatma Gandhi was also born in Gujarat) decided he could no longer live the heterosexual life his family expected. After a marriage debacle Gohil announced his homosexuality and was immediately disowned by his royal family.

Not a shrinking flower, Gohil publicized his ‘coming out’ on the Oprah show in 2007 and proved to be a charming, articulate and intelligent spokesman for gay authenticity and gay rights. Since then he has traveled the world speaking out against discrimination.

Instead of withdrawing behind gilded walls and silken pillows he has taken on charitable projects that include a hospital for HIV infected people and, most recently, building India’s first retirement home for elderly gays and lesbians (expected to open in late 2009).

Gohil’s coming out in ’05 happened coincidentally with a vigorous and determined campaign by courageous Indian activists to decriminalize homosexuality in India. In July of this year the Delhi High Court struck down India’s colonial era anti-gay law.

He and his family have reconciled as they have come to see him as a more empowered and purposeful person. In 2000, before coming out, he started the Lakshya Trust, a community-based organization that now provides support and education for HIV/AIDS prevention among men who have sex with men (MSMs). Lakshya Trust today runs three centers where men get health information, social support and counseling services.

The Trust has grown to become a research surveillance site for the Government of India’s National AIDS Control Organization and was awarded the Joint United Nations Program on AIDS (UNAIDS) Civil Society Award in 2006. His Highness is also the India regional representative on the Executive Board of the Asia-Pacific Coalition of Male Sexual Health (APCOM), a regional network addressing HIV issues affecting gay men and
transgender people.

The most remarkable aspect of this man is not his royal trappings or his constructed buildings or his charity organization but his out and proud gay presence in the vastly homophobic Indian culture. This is a place that has for over a century vilified, condemned, punished and beaten anyone caught or admitting to homosexual activity.

There are many out gay activists in India today and have braved the scorn of the populace and been brushed aside by a 'high society' brainwashed by punitive and archaic British anti-gay laws. It is easy to reject gay 'commoners' with no pedigree other than their intelligence and advanced university degrees. But it is not so easy to dismiss the blue-blood heir of a 650 year-old aristocratic dynasty, even though it carries no legal power today. In India reputation, rank andstatus have a persuasion that transcend normal social attitudes and carry authority and legitimacy above the ordinary.

Prince Gohil cannot be said to be heroic but he has un-common distinction and being homosexual he has unusual distinction as well, and he is choosing to use his distinct position to carry the message of social equality more noticeably than any non-royal can.

And that takes courage. To bring light into darkness. To bring tolerance into bigotry. To bring dignity to the outcast and compassion to the rejected. That is the true royalty of this man.

See this page for other recent News & Reports about India this year.

Leading Spiritual Teacher in India Discusses Being Gay as it Applies to Spirituality

Copenhagen, Denmark - July 26, 2009
Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz.com

Many years ago, I attended a couple of seminars offered by this "guru" when he was little known. Today he is one of India's most respected spiritual teachers, and I came across an article about what he recently said about being gay.

So much has been written about homosexuality since the Delhi High Court judgment to strike down Section 377, which the British imposed on the Indian legal system in 1861. Here is what Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had to say in a recent interview on the subject.

Question: The new Pontificate (Vatican) is expected to take a rigid stance on issues like those of gay relationships. What do ancient scriptures say about these matter?

Guruji: As far as the ancient scripture is concerned, there is neither mention nor prohibition of it. One thing the ancient scriptures say, as far as I know is that every human being is made up of both Mother and Father - half-female, half-male. The male tendency may be dominant; sometimes the female tendency may be dominant. It is a biological phenomenon. So if people are bound to have sunch tendencies, they should acknowledge it.

Question: Are you approving of gay marriages? Would you conduct gay marraiges?

Answer: Conducting marriages is not part of spirituality at all. It is a religious thing. Spirituality simply makes you aware that you are spirit and it uplifts you from all tendencies, whether you are for, or against, or paranoid about the sexuality of other people. All this is not concerned with spirituality. Spirituality makes you realize that you are not just flesh. You are light. So there is a gender equality in spirituality. Religion will not give you gender equality, whereas in spirituality, whether you are a mother, or father, it doesn't matter - you are equal.

Question: But here we are not talking about parenthood.

Answer: I am talking about the male and female tendencies in a person. Depending on whatever tendencies are strongest in the system, biologically, this will accordingly reflect in one's life and sexuality. So, I think, one should see that one is not just flesh because it's a temporary thing. Tendencies are temporary, but the spirit is much more than tendencies. You are the spirit, which is all light, all love, wisdom and knowledge. Your identification must shift from gender to spirit... and this is exactly what spirituality means - to rise above the tendencies that are impermanent.

We have seen that many straight people "get" gay tendencies, sometimes... and this creates fear in them. They are so scared about what is happening to them. When they start meditating, they rise above this, and become natural and loving. Even people, who brand themselves as being gay, suddenly find themselves being attracted to opposite sex... and it creates big confusion. This is why I say that you should not label yourself. You are much more than your tendencies. You are the beautiful spirit, and if that is also a label, it is better to have this label, than any other.

As a gay person, this is lovely to read. But it certainly is not new insight. Living inside the skin and spirit of the gay psyche, virtually all LGBT people feel the essential "purity" of their sentient self. (I'm not talking about closeted or self-hating homosexuals who deny their truth.) Different as our sexual orientation may be from the majority of people, we are not living in any "separate reality". We are all far more similar than different as human beings. What Guru Shankar is talking about is human essence, not human psychology or human behavior.

When we allow our minds to go into a higher level of awareness, sexual orientation becomes irrelevant. Ram Dass spoke about the experience of coming from a higher plain of awareness as well. Using tantric yoga breathing techniques infuses the body with an energy that offers a lighter view of sexuality that is neither maleness or femaleness. It is "is-ness", and I think this is what Shankar is talking about, not carnal issues or gay identity or sexual orientation.