It’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t love Bea Arthur nowadays, but thankfully, the internet has given us yet another reason to drool over the former Golden Girls actress/icon/goddess. According to DNAinfo, seven years ago Arthur gave a $300,000 donation to the Ali Forney Center, an organization that serves homeless LGBTQ youth in New York City. Last Monday, thanks to Arthur’s donation, The Forney Center finally opened a brand new 18-bed facility, here to house some of New York’s most tragically undeserved youth.
“The Bea Arthur Residence” (man, what a name), will not only house the youth, but provide critical social services as well. In 2005, when director Carl Siciliano said his organization was “struggling to survive,” Arthur took a stand. Not only did she put on a huge benefit show, she bequeathed a huge donation to the nonprofit at the time of her death. This at a time when the country was experiencing a recession—and when gay marriage, and gay rights, were both minority positions. Over 40 percent of the nation’s homeless youth identify as LGBTQ, but they face intense discrimination in already under-resourced shelters. As Allen Roskoff, a close friend of Arthur’s, told DNAinfo: “She loved the Ali Forney Center, she loved the work they were doing, and she loved the fact that LGBT youth had a place they could call home.”
A pioneering comedian made a pioneering contribution, all thanks to The Golden Girls. Does a sentence get happier than that?
(Via: DNAInfo)