You Were Always Right About Bea Arthur

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One of Bea Arthur’s final public performances before her death was in 2005 to support the Ali Forney Center, one of the nation’s largest organizations to assist LGBT homeless youth.

“I’m very, very involved in charities involving youth,” Arthur said in one of her last interviews. “These kids at the Ali Forney Center are literally dumped by their families because of the fact that they are lesbian, gay or transgender…this organization really is saving lives.”

In fact, at the time of the Golden Girl’s death in 2009, Arthur left the Ali Forney Center $300,000 in her will. To honor the late actress, the Center has named a new LGBT homeless shelter in her honor. The Bea Arthur Residence, an 18-bed center located at 222 East 13th Street in New York City, will break ground on July 20th.

“It meant the world to me that a star of the magnitude of Bea Arthur would do so much to help the Ali Forney Center in our work of housing homeless LGBT youths.” said Carl Siciliano, Executive Director of the Ali Forney Center. “I am very grateful that we will now be able to honor Bea and continue to keep her compassion alive through the establishment of the Bea Arthur Residence for Homeless LGBT Youth.”

The building, which has long been vacant, will undergo a series of renovations, funded in part by the New York City Council and the Manhattan Borough, and it is anticipated that the first residents will be able to occupy the space by the end of 2016.

For more information on the Ali Forney Center, visit their website.