EDGE on the Net

Fiddler on the Roof. Mame. Maude. The Golden Girls.

After recalling her work in those classics, no self-respecting gay boy really needs another reason to love the late, great Bea Arthur. One more wouldn’t hurt, though, and this one is a doozie: Bea Arthur was a major supporter of, and contributor to, The Ali Forney Center.

Currently offering housing to 58 youths in seven residential sites in New York City, AFC is the nation’s largest organization dedicated to homeless LGBT youth. It also offers two drop-in centers, medical care, mental health treatment, HIV testing and treatment, and educational and vocational assistance programs.

On September 14 - when Arthur’s friends and family host a memorial for her (hosted by fellow gay icon Angela Lansbury!) - a notice in the program will request, "In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Ali Forney Center, one of Ms. Arthur’s most beloved charities."

So how did a West Coast resident in her mid-80s come to be a passionate champion of LGBT homeless youth? EDGE recently spoke with Carl Siciliano (executive director of the Ali Forney Center) - and found a multitude of new reasons to keep on loving our beloved Bea Arthur.

Arthurs’s involvement with AFC began in 2005 when, Siciliano says, "a very renowned set designer named Ray Klaussen started to volunteer for us; and he had done the set design Bea’s 2002 Broadway show."

Klaussen talked about the Center to Arthur, and requested that she do a special benefit performance of her show. "I don’t think she’d been aware that there were thousands of gay kids thrown out of their homes and into the streets," recalls Siciliano. But as she became familiar with AFC’s mission, "She was very upset and disturbed to learn what was happening; that gay kids were being rejected by their families for who they were."

So, in November of 2005, Arthur flew to NYC from her home in Los Angeles and did the benefit performance. "She revived her show for one night only at the Symphony Space at 95th Street and Broadway." says Siciliano. "We called it "Bea Arthur, Back on Broadway (and 95th Street)."

The AFC staff spent several days chauffeuring Arthur around town. She was, as you’d expect, delightful on and off stage. But upon their first meeting, Siciliano "was really surprised. She seemed very frail and, frankly, I was worried about the show.

"I didn’t know at the time that she had been struggling with cancer - and had been for years."

When the curtain rose on the show, however, "It was like magic. When she got out on the stage, her humor and talent and charisma was in full force."

Arthur’s dedication to the cause didn’t end with that singular NYC performance. "She gave a lot of interviews afterwards about how upset she was that so many gay kids were being thrown out into the street," says Siciliano.

"In the last interview I’ve ever read with her, something published in the NY Blade in May of 2008, she was still talking about the benefit three years later and saying she’d do anything she could to help."

Siciliano also notes that with no fanfare, Arthur "personally made a generous donation to the AFC."

That generosity will continue at this week’s memorial service. Siciliano notes that while it’s technically not a benefit for AFC, "We were approached by the friends of Bea Arthur who are putting it on. They knew that she had cared very deeply about our organization, so they wanted to affiliate the memorial with a charity."

At the memorial, there will be a write-up about AFC in the program - which will have envelopes for donations. Siciliano will be announcing at the memorial the AFC plans to open a new residence and name it after Arthur.

That residence, AFC hopes, will be their first owned space (as opposed to the rented facilities they currently use). Siciliano: "We’re opening a new site in the next two weeks in Astoria, in the decommissioned Church of St. Andrews, as an emergency shelter for 16 kids - which brings our capacity up to 58 kids per night."

AFC has seven other residences, but, "We’re currently renting all of our apartments, and HUD reimburses us based on the national average; so we have to raise a lot of private money now to pay rent," Siciliano says.

"Over next three years we, want to move away from renting to owning sites. The first of those we open will be the Bea Arthur Memorial Residence."

The Bea Arthur memorial service is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on September 14 at the Majestic Theater in NYC. Seating is open to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis.