Image via Passport.

Today, The Ali Forney Center calls on Governor Cuomo, Mayor Bloomberg, and the New York City Council to support the Campaign for Youth Shelter, an initiative calling for an additional $3 million per year in funding to create 100 youth shelter beds annually, until there are enough beds for all homeless youth in New York City. The statement was signed by prominent LGBT organizations including GMHC, PFLAG NYC, The Trevor Project, activists such as Urvashi Vaid, Kevin Jennings, and Matt Foreman, as well as celebrities including Carson Kressley, Sandra Bernhard, Alan Cumming, Ally Sheedy, and Justin Bond.

The statement was issued in advance of an October 24 rally in support of the Campaign. The rally will be held in Union Square in New York City beginning at 6 PM, and is being planned by representatives from the Ali Forney Center, the Bronx Community Pride Center, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, Green Chimneys NYC, the Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn, and Queer Rising.

“The crisis of LGBT youth homelessness in NYC results from the collision of parental homophobia with unjust political policies. The Campaign for Youth Shelter allows the LGBT community to say loud and clear that it is wrong for parents to throw their queer children to the streets, and it is wrong for our elected officials to allow them to stay in the streets without safe shelter,” Ali Forney Center’s Executive Director Carl Siciliano said.

If you can’t make the rally, be sure to make it to our “Hollyween” party at the Eventi Hotel. All Proceeds from the event will go to the Ali Forney Center.