Thekilling of Ali Forney occurred on December 5, 1997. Forney was anAfrican-Americangay and gender non-conforming[1]transgender youth who also used the nameLuscious.[2]
Forney was raised by theirsingle mother inBrooklyn. They started working as asex worker at age 13, and they were subsequently rejected by their family. They werehomeless for several years. They became ineligible for city youth shelters at age 19. In 1996, Forney was invited to explain the needs of homeless transgender youth tosocial workers.
In December 1997, Forney was shot to death inHarlem. They were the third young transgender sex worker murdered in Harlem within a period of several months. The murder case was investigated by theNYPD, but was never solved. In 2002, theAli Forney Center for homeless LGBT youth was named after the murder victim.
Forney was born inCharlotte, North Carolina, and raised inBrooklyn, by a single mother. Forney said that they first engaged in sex work at 13, and that the $40 made them feel rich. Rejected by their family at around that time, Forney was put in a group home, from which they soon ran away. Forney was in a series of foster placements, but found the streets preferable.[3] Forney, assigned male at birth, continued to work as a sex worker, often dressed in women's clothing.[4] Forney admitted to usingcrack cocaine "because it eased the degradation and fear" from sex work.[5][6]
At 17, Forney joined theSafe Horizon Streetwork program, where counselors helped them acquire a Social Security card and a medical card. Forney completed aGED[5] and, at the time of their death, had started to work with the staff to help other homeless youth.[3] After turning 18, Forney received a settlement for a childhood car accident, but remained estranged from their family, and was ineligible for city youth shelters after reaching the age of 19.[5]
ProudlyHIV-negative, Forney became good at peer counseling and promoted safety, carrying a pocketful ofcondoms and offering them to drug dealers.[5] Forney said, "I became a peer educator because I see so many HIV-infected people on the stroll. Even now, there are people who don't know how to use condoms."[3] In 1996, Forney was invited toSan Francisco,California, to tell social workers about the needs of homeless transgender youth.[5]
At 4 a.m. on December 5, 1997, Forney was found by the police shot to death on the sidewalk in front of ahousing project onEast 131st Street in Harlem.[5] According toThe New York Times Forney was the third young transgender sex worker murdered in Harlem in fourteen months.[4] Despite an investigation by theNYPD, Forney's murder has never been solved.[7]
Over seventy people attended Forney's memorial service.[4][5]
When Carl Siciliano started a center for homeless LGBT youth in New York in 2002, he named it the Ali Forney Center (also known as AFC) in Forney's memory.[8] The center opened in June 2002. It serves mostly Manhattan and Brooklyn youth aged 16 to 24 years, providing them with safe shelter and other help in addition to counseling for their families where needed.
