NEW YORK: Tracy Morgan Meets Homeless LGBT Youth Of Ali Forney Center

ABOVE: "Tracy Morgan listens to Jayden Love, an Ali Forney Center client rejected by her religious family." I can't imagine a more effective remedy for Morgan than meeting the kids of the AFC.

May 3rd At NYC's LGBT Center: Community Forum On Youth Homelessness

Via press release from the Ali Forney Center:

We'd like to invite you to attend a forum on May 3rd at New York City's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center (208 West 13th) which will examine the struggle to protect the thousands of youths who have been rejected by their families due to homophobia, and seeks to articulate a vision of equality for LGBT families which incorporates protecting youth as a more central focus. The need to examine this has been made more urgent by the recent budget put forth by New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, which cut funding for homeless youth services by 50 percent. These cuts risk the closure of a number of youth shelter beds, putting vulnerable youth on the street, and disproportionately harming vulnerable LGBT youth.

The forum starts at 7pm and speakers include Cathy Renna, Tobias Wolff, and AFC executive director Carl Siciliano.

MONDAY IN NYC: Ali Forney Center's Fifth Annual Broadway Beauty Pageant

The Ali Forney Center holds its fifth annual Broadway Beauty Pageant this Monday at Manhattan's Symphony Space, where Broadway's hottest and most talented chorus boys compete to win the prized tiara. It's a fun, sweet show hosted by four-time Tony nominee Tovah Feldshuh and the house is always packed with the movers and shakers of musical theater. Highly recommended.

Judges include Bruce Vilanch (six-time Emmy Award winner/comedy writer, who made his Broadway debut in Hairspray), Rachel Dratch ("Saturday Night Live") and Carson Kressley ("Queer Eye," "How To Look Good Naked," "Carson-Nation"). This year's contestants comprise Matt Anctil, La Cage aux Folles; Mikey Cusamano, Chicago; Ray Lee, Anything Goes; Brandon Rubendall, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark; and James Tabeek, Mary Poppins. Conceived by Jeffery Self and directed by Ryan J. Davis, The Broadway Beauty Pageant is musically directed by Christopher Denny. The evening is produced by Wil Fisher, Ryan J. Davis, Jeffery Self and Matthew Oberstein.

Get tickets here.

Homeless Gay Kid Pleads With NY Gov. Cuomo: Please Don't Cut Our Funding

Last night I got a call from Ali Forney Center founder Carl Siciliano, who alerted me that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is planning to completely end state funding for homeless youth shelters. Carl forwards us the below letter from AFC resident Raciel Castillo, pictured at left.

Governor Cuomo, I understand that you intend to end the funding from New York State to support youth shelter beds. This means that on July 1st, many of us will be put out of our shelter beds and be thrown out to the streets. I want you to understand that this will put our lives at risk.

It is hard to be a homeless kid, having nowhere to stay and feeling alone and unwanted. For me the worst part was feeling hopeless. I know a bunch of homeless gay kids who have told me that they considered suicide. People think it is just because of bullying in schools, but it is also because of being rejected by our families and forced to make it on the streets. One of my friends tried to throw herself in front of a subway. She said she was tired of being invisible. Thank god some of my friends were able to hold her back.

Governor Cuomo, I want you to understand how terrible things are for homeless kids. I want you to understand how mean and reckless it is to cut support for kids out on the streets. I have lots of friends who have nowhere safe to sleep. I know some who have to prostitute themselves just to have a place to sleep. Kids get beat up and hurt on the streets. The Ali Forney Center is named after a kid who was murdered on the streets. Too many of us were thrown out by parents who refuse to care about us. Please Governor Cuomo, don't throw us away also.

TAKE ACTION: Please consider adding your name to this letter urging Cuomo to maintain this funding. You need not be a New York resident to raise your voice, because so many of New York City's homeless kids flee here from other states. Carl Siciliano notes that this is a quite urgent situation, as portions of the state budget may be finalized this week.

#Haas11

I'm in San Francisco for a Haas Fund-sponsored conference on immigration equality, LGBT youth homelessness and suicide prevention. Pretty much every LGBT journalist/blogger you've probably heard of is here in the room with me. You can follow the conference live on Twitter via the hashtag #Haas11.

Homeless Shelter Boots Suspected Gays

The House Of Mercy in Columbus, Georgia has booted out two homeless women because shelter managers suspect they are gay. Michael Jones reports at Change.org:

These were women who actually fled abusive homes, and as one of them told WRBL, she was expecting to be treated with compassion by the folks at House of Mercy. "I was hoping that just by the name ... I was hoping for security," one of the women said. Instead, the woman says the way she was treated at the House of Mercy was unholy. "It was not a place of God." The director of House of Mercy, Elder Bobby Harris, told WRBL that "practicing" gay people aren't welcome at his shelter, no matter how in need they might be. "[Homosexuality] is not tolerated here at all. Let me tell you one reason why: because of the Bible, of course. And then we have little children ... We believe that Christ can change all. But when they begin to practice their acts," Harris says, there's nothing he can do for gay people in need.

The two women say that they are not gay, but that the shelter should have taken them in even if they were.

VICTORY For NYC's Homeless Kids: City Restores Funding For Ali Forney Center

Wonderful news for the homeless LGBT kids of New York City. This morning NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced that city funding to the Ali Forney Center has been completely restored!

Ali Forney Center executive director Carl Siciliano:

This is wonderful news for the homeless youth of our City, particularly for homeless LGBT youth who would be disproportionately hurt by the proposed cuts. I am profoundly grateful to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the Council Assistant Majority Leader and Youth Services Committee Chair Lewis Fidler for their strong and dedicated leadership in seeking to have these cuts restored. Thousands of homeless youth have been protected by their compassionate leadership.

I am also deeply grateful to many members of the broader LGBT community who stood up and demanded that our most vulnerable youth be protected from these cuts. Many, many people called, wrote, and e-mailed the Mayor's office and expressed their concern and outrage. I do not think that the Mayor, in proposing the cuts, anticipated the depth of the commitment of the LGBT Community to protecting our youth who have been thrown out to the streets, and I am deeply moved by the caring that our Community revealed in fighting the cuts. I want to especially thank David Mixner, Mike Lavers and Joe Jervis for their efforts in bringing the harmfulness of the cuts to the attention of the LGBT Community.

Thanks to everybody in the JMG community for their emails to the mayor and the City Council!

Alan Cumming & Friends For Ali Forney

Alan Cumming, Justin Bond, Dan Choi and others (including me) speak in support of the Ali Forney Center, which has seen its funding dramatically cut by New York City. You can help. Hundreds of gay kids will spend tonight sleeping on the subway or worse.

Ali Forney Center's Carl Siciliano Blasts Bloomberg's Cuts To Homeless Gay Kids

Michael K. Lavers reports at EDGE:

Juan Valdez literally remains out in the cold. The 21-year-old from Orlando, Florida, has been homeless since he arrived in New York City eight months ago. Valdez’s parents kicked him out of their home. And he told EDGE he now sleeps with what he described as "a whole bunch of ex-convicts" looking for sex. "I’ve been homeless the whole time I’ve been here," said Valdez. Valdez literally shivered alongside more than a hundred activists and elected officials on the steps of City Hall in lower Manhattan on Tuesday, Dec. 21, to protest Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed cuts to homeless youth programs.

Hit the link and read Lavers' full report. Then watch the clip and please consider making a holiday donation to the Ali Forney Center.

Guest Post - Carl Siciliano

It has been a rough holiday season for the Ali Forney Center.

The day after Thanksgiving I received an e-mail from the City of New York, informing me that due to budget problems, they were slashing their support for homeless youth programs, greatly defunding street outreach efforts and drop-in centers. Our drop-in support is being cut in half.

I prefer to talk about our housing programs, and the remarkable resilience that so many of our residents show in rebuilding lives that have been shattered by homophobia and family rejection. The realities we deal with in our two drop-in centers are harder and more brutal.

In New York City, there are 3,800 youths who sleep on the streets every night. Over 1,000 of these youths admit to being LGBT. There are only about 250 shelter beds for homeless youth in NYC, so the great majority are left stranded on the streets. LGBT kids from all over the country flock to our drop-in centers for the food, showers, medical care, mental health treatment and other forms of support we provide.

Our case managers work valiantly to help find shelter for these kids, but the reality is there are so few safe options for LGBT youth that we are often forced to advise them on how to survive while sleeping in places like subway trains, parks, abandoned buildings and construction sites as they wait for one of our beds to open up. Yesterday one of our case managers described spending the afternoon trying to find shelter for a girl who had just come to us. When his efforts were exhausted and he had to tell her that she would be out on the street for the night, she sat in his office and cried.

I hate what I see our kids going through. So many thousands of vulnerable kids being cast out of their homes for being gay, deprived of all family support, and forced to fend for themselves without the resources to survive. I hate the way the suffer violence and degradation on the streets, the way they get gay bashed in mainstream shelters, the way so many have to survive through prostitution. I hate seeing youth be so deeply traumatized.

This phenomenon of thousands of LGBT youth being thrown out to the streets by parents who will not accept them is the most terrible face of homophobia in our time. Is there is a greater wrong being perpetrated against our community? I do not understand why protecting our terribly violated and abandoned youth is not the top priority of the LGBT movement. I do not understand why our advocacy organizations are not fighting to make certain that our tax dollars are allocated to supporting these abandoned kids. It is a nightmare that there are so few resources to protect these kids.

With these budget cuts, our ability to provide our drop-in centers is jeopardized, but I am not willing to reduce what little support these poor kids have. The drop-in centers are the safety net for the kids out on the street and I cannot imagine closing our doors. We desperately need an outpouring of support from the community to keep our drop-in centers open. Please be as generous as you can in this time of trial and, please, see if you can persuade friends to help.

Online donations can be made by clicking here.

Checks can be sent to:

Ali Forney Center
224 West 35th Street, Suite 1102
New York, NY 10001

Thank You!

Carl Siciliano
Executive Director
Ali Forney Center

NYC Slashes Funding For Homeless Youth

On Thanksgiving Eve, the Ali Forney Center received a grim letter from New York City's Department of Youth and Community Development.

Due to a combination of City and State budget reductions for FY11 and FY12, DYCD has made the difficult decision to reduce Runaway and Homeless Youth Services funds by $969,407 and $700,000, respectively, beginning this fiscal year. In order to preserve residential services for young people in need of a safe place to stay, DYCD has decided to modify Street Outreach and Drop-In Center Services. As a result of the combination of State and City reductions, Street Outreach Services will be reduced by 50% in FY11 and eliminated in FY12. Drop-In Center services funded by the City Council will be reduced by 50% in FY11 and DYCD’s Borough-based Drop-In Centers in Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens will be reduced by one-third in FY11 and 23% in FY12. The Staten Island Drop-In Center will be reduced by 10% in FY12

Ali Forney Center executive director Carl Siciliano:

LGBT youth make up 40% of New York City's homeless youth population. Every night there are hundreds who suffer on the streets with nowhere safe to go. While I agree that housing is the most crucially needed service, outreach workers and drop-in centers are a lifeline for kids who are stranded on the streets without shelter. These reductions frankly constitute an attack on the safety and welfare of our most vulnerable youth.

I have been in contact with members of the City Council who are outraged by the cuts and want them overturned. I have been asked to have as many people as possible turn out for a DYCD-sponsored Forum on Homeless LGBT Youth this Wednesday at 5:30pm at 1 Center Street, so the City can see that people are upset by these cuts. In order to show your support for our youth in a time of crisis, I am asking each one of you to make every effort to attend.

If you are in NYC, please consider attending tomorrow afternoon's emergency meeting! Location: Borough President Scott Stringer's conference room, 19th floor, 1 Center Street.

Straight Girls For Gay Boys

Stars Speak Out On LGBT Homelessness

This month's celebrity-filled edition of Cyndi Lauper's We Give A Damn project includes Susan Sarandon, Alan Cumming, Pete Wentz, Rebecca Romijn, and Eden Riegel speaking out on LGBT youth homelessness.

Cyndi Lauper Turns The Empire State Building Green For Homeless LGBT Youth

From the clip description at Lauper's We Give A Damn channel:

Tonight, the Empire State Building in New York City will shine green in recognition of all the homeless youth around the world, in particular gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth who have been kicked out of their homes or who have runaway out of fear and despair. In New York City and across the country, it is estimated that 20% to 40% of the homeless youth population is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, yet only make up 3 to 5% of the general youth population.

San Francisco Passes Sit/Lie Prop L

San Francisco has approved its controversial Proposition L, which bans sitting or lying on public sidewalks between the hours of 7AM and 11PM. Repeat offenders face now thirty days in jail. The bill is intended to give the city's shop owners (and homeowners) some respite from the homeless who often panhandle aggressively from in front of their buildings for weeks at a time.

Prop L was vehemently opposed by homeless advocacy groups, but was supported by Mayor Gavin Newsom and San Francisco's chief of police. The city's gay Bay Area Reporter also endorsed the measure. It's unknown what the SFPD's plan for enforcement may be. But I'm betting not much will really change.

November 8th In NYC: Fundraising Concert For The Ali Forney Center

Monday, November 8th in New York City, the Ali Forney Center will stage a fundraising concert featuring Alan Cumming, David Raleigh, Billy Porter, and dance music star Ari Gold.

It’s no secret. Our LGBT youth are suffering now more than ever before, as you may have seen in recent news. These teens need support, they need help, and most of all, they need friends. For these reasons, Alan Cumming, Ari Gold, Billy Porter and I have founded a benefit we are calling The Friends Project. It is my pleasure to invite you to a ONE NIGHT ONLY EVENT with me and my friends. Together, we will raise awareness of this grave issue, celebrate life and release the world premier of our new music video, “That’s What Friends Are For.” All proceeds will benefit the Ali Forney Center, an organization that works tirelessly to serve New York City’s homeless LGBT youth. The center sees vulnerable LGBT teens through that fragile transition between adolescence and adulthood. We are friends of the Ali Forney Center and we are friends to the city’s struggling LGBT teens.

Get tickets here!

On San Francisco's Proposition L

Anybody who has visited or lived in San Francisco over the last decade might agree that after the city's physical beauty, the single-most memorable feature of the town is its staggering, almost Third Worldly volume of homelessness. Many politicians have tried and failed to legislate the homeless out of town, but San Francisco has a deserved reputation as a haven for those down on their luck and has a support system of food banks and advocacy groups that some accuse of actually exacerbating the problem by drawing even more homeless to San Francisco from other areas.

And so, for the umpteenth time, comes along this year's attempt to deal with the problem, Proposition L, which is meant to give the city's business owners (and homeowners) some daytime respite from the homeless who often camp in front of their doors for weeks at a time. (I've seen the same five young men camping in front of a Castro Street retailer for the last five days. Other encampments exist all over the Castro.)

Proposition L would make it illegal to sit or lie on sidewalks citywide from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Police officers must give a warning before they can give a citation, but for someone who does not comply, police could use jail time as a threat. Many understandable exceptions are built into the law — babies in strollers, people in wheelchairs, parades, waiting in line, food carts.

Proponents claim that similar laws have been effective in places like Seattle and Berkeley, but others say that the city already has numerous (largely unenforced) laws that address the same issue. When Mayor Gavin Newsom first put Proposition L before the city's supervisors, they rejected it with a veto-proof majority. Newsom then worked to put it before San Francisco's voters. This week the city's gay paper, the Bay Area Reporter, endorsed Proposition L.

Prop L: Sitting or Lying on Sidewalks. YES.

Known as the Sit/Lie measure, this proposition came out of the neighborhoods, particularly the Haight. Residents and businesses alike complained that aggressive and disruptive behavior was harming businesses and the quality of life for residents and visitors. This proposition gives the police an additional tool that they feel they need in order to keep the neighborhoods safe and pleasant. We would be reluctant to support such a measure if it were in another community than San Francisco. However, we have confidence in Police Chief George Gascon, who strongly supports this measure, as well as the officers on the street who have undergone intensive sensitivity training to respect the diversity of cultures and lifestyles that thrive in San Francisco.

Confusing the issue for voters is Proposition M, which would prevent Prop L from going into effect, but only if both measures are approved AND Prop M gets more votes.

I really don't know what to think about Prop L, maybe because I don't live here anymore and can't get as angry as the locals obviously are. Especially in the Castro, the homeless appear to be young male drifters without any obvious mental or physical handicaps other than (probably) drug addiction. (A couple of them I recognize from when I first moved here fifteen years ago.) But I don't know if that should even matter. And I'm not sure where the proponents of Prop L actually expect these people to go.

Carl Siciliano On LGBT Teen Suicides

At the Ali Forney Center's annual fundraising dinner on Thursday, executive director Carl Siciliano spoke passionately about the recent rash of LGBT youth suicides and the mission of his organization to create safe spaces for queer kids attempting to escape hopeless (and often brutal) home situations. Watch this.

After his speech, Carl dropped a bit of a bombshell. Last year the single largest private donation to the Ali Forney Center came from the estate of Bea Arthur. Which we knew about. But the second largest amount of private donations came from the readers of JMG via fundraising requests made on this here website thingy. Amazing. Thank you. Immediately after Carl made that revelation, I then had to come up and give my acceptance speech for the Ali Forney Center Advocate Award. Talk about verklempt! Was not ready for that news. The photo below is by Gustavo Monroy, check out his gallery from the evening. Lots of handsome men within, some of whom you'll recognize from a certain brand-new gay reality show.

HomoQuotable - Carl Siciliano

"I dream of a day where every gay youth in our country will have access to safe spaces, where no gay kid will live more than 100 miles from a space where LGBT youth can go to find community and support. But the creation of these life-saving spaces will require the passionate commitment and attention of the adult LGBT community. We need to pay attention to what is available to teens in our local communities. We need to raise funds and resources to support these spaces, and be aggressive in advocating that our tax dollars be used to support spaces where our teens receive the support they need.

"In the last eighteen months, in a city with as large an LGBT population as New York City, the Ali Forney Center lost funding for its emergency shelter, Green Chimney's lost funding for its foster care program, and Hetrick Martin and the LGBT Center lost funding for their after-school youth programs. Our youth need an adult community that is so committed to their welfare that such cuts to lifesaving services for LGBT teens could not occur without a tremendous outcry from our community.

"Too many of our youth are under attack in their homes, schools and communities. Homophobia creates environments that are deadly to our youth. We need to recognize the depth of this crisis and see the protection of our youth as a core responsibility of our movement. We need to build a support system that will save their lives." - Ali Forney Center executive director Carl Siciliano, in a response to the national epidemic of gay teen suicides.

Read Siciliano's four step program for protecting LGBT youth.

REMINDER: Ali Forney Center's Annual Fundraiser Dinner Is This Thursday

True Blood's Denis O'Hare hosts the Ali Forney Center's "A Place At The Table" fundraising dinner gala this Thursday in New York City, where the honorees include furniture mogul/activist Mitchell Gold and a certain "perverted atheist leatherman blogger." Get tickets here. If you can't attend, please consider making a contribution to the Ali Forney Center's desperately needed work for homeless LGBT youth.