Blew past the goal

Yay! The Ali Forney Center in New York blew past its $200,000 fundraising goal in less than two weeks. I just checked and the total is $202,850. The money for this campaign is designated for buying the extremely anti-gay Atlah Church which will be put up for auction in about two weeks.

It is not a done deal yet. This is Manhattan and bidding will go much higher than the $1 million in unpaid bills the Atlah Church owes. Executive Director Carl Siciliano wrote:

AFC’s acquiring the beautiful and historic building that now stands as a symbol of hate would be extraordinary, but the bottom line is this: the Ali Forney Center has 200 youths per night on the waiting list for our beds. As an organization, we have no obligation more urgent than to increase our capacity to provide housing to these vulnerable youth. With the support of the Harlem community, those who have contributed and many others offering to help, we approach the February 24th auction with confidence and hope. Given the real estate market in Harlem we anticipate the bidding will go significantly higher than the $1.02M owed and we are in discussion with potential developers and investors to acquire the building and we anticipate having a partner by the time of the auction. We will continue fundraising through the #HarlemNoHate campaign and make every effort to be in as strong a position as possible to acquire the building.

Yes, you can still donate.