Today is World AIDS Day. India has the third highest HIV infections in the world. One of my focus areas as a consultant and brand ambassador of the US-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation is to develop strategies and advocacies with government, political leaders, educational institutions, media and hospitals to ensure that as many people as possible in India are getting tested for the virus.

Once the testing is done, we immediately put the patients on treatment to prevent transmission. Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur are the three states we are focussing on, currently.

When I started Lakshya (a community based charitable trust that works in the field of sexual health) in 2000, there was no organisation in Gujarat working to solve the problems and issues of homosexuals and transgender community.

One of the biggest fallouts LGBTQ members face when they come out to their family is harassment and the threat of disinheritance. Left with no family or social support they often go through depression and suicidal tendencies. It can be the worst time in their lives. I know this personally because I myself was disinherited by my parents, when I came out of the closet.

At Lakshya, we welcome such people to stay with us, help them remove all guilt feelings about their sexuality and make them confident enough to face a homophobic world. We also provide them with the necessary skill training in whatever field they are interested in—fashion designing, tailoring, cooking, nursing, horticulture and makeup, hair and beauty—to make them financially empowered.

The idea of a shelter home came to me around a decade ago, when I was briefly disinherited by my own parents. We also have an exclusive shelter home for the transgender community in Baroda.

Today, with the Supreme Court (SC) decriminalising homosexuality, more and more LGBTQ people are coming out of the closet. We need such shelter homes/safe spaces, everywhere.

(Continues)

(Manvendra Singh Gohil is the first openly gay prince in the world. In conversation with Sangeeth Sebastian, writer and founder, Vvox, a sextech platform. The series is a part of an AKADialog initiative to capture the lives of newsmakers.)