The Ali Forney Center opened in 2002 to provide safe shelter for GLBT youth in New York City. It was named after Ali Forney, a homeless gay teen who was murdered in 1997. The center, which takes in about 1,000 GLBT youth each year still has a nightly waiting list averaging 150.
The Ali Forney Center has had many supporters over the years including the late Golden Girls actress, Bea Arthur, who donated a significant amount to the organization. This week another donor came forward, the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island which contributed $200,000 towards a new 16-bed shelter in Queens, New York.
This might come as a surprise to a lot of people who assume Christianity is hostile to GLBT community. As Carl Siciliano, Ali Forney's Executive Director told the New York Times, "For a lot of us, when we hear about Christianity, our stomachs kind of churn. Another part of me is very grateful the church is making this kind of gesture."
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This comes to me as no surprise. Isn’t the Episcopal Church one of the more tolerant denominations? I think they just voted an openly gay woman for bishop recently (can’t remember the exact title, but I think it’s bishop).
Yeah, they just nominated a lesbian woman to be suffragan (next-in-line) bishop of (I believe) The Diocese of Northern California.