Disowned gay
prince now wants to adopt

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, who was publicly disowned by his family after coming out, has decided to adopt a child. Prince Manvendra, 40, is said to be the first member of any royal family in India to publicly reveal that he is gay. He has since been stripped of his affluent title and all his inheritance.

His decision to adopt a child follows a recent effort by relatives to take him back into the family, according to The New Indian Press. He has expressed a desire to adopt a teenage child to look after the royal family. He has also suggested that he send the child abroad for higher education.

Only two months ago the prince's mother issued a statement asserting that he was involved in activities that are "unsuitable in society."

Although he came out to his family in 2002, he said his family had not expected him to go public about his sexuality.

"I came out as gay to a Gujarati daily because I wanted people to openly discuss homosexuality since it's a hidden affair, with a lot of stigma attached," says Gohil, who is chairperson of Lakshya Trust, a nongovernmental organization working to check the spread of HIV/AIDS among gays in Gujarat, a state in western India. (Hassan Mizra, Gay.com/U.K.)