Ali Forney

Ali He’shun Forney (April 12, 1975 – December 5, 1997) was an African-American gay and transgender youth who also used the name Luscious. He was a peer counselor of and advocate for homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth and was killed on the street in Harlem. The Ali Forney Center for homeless LGBT youth was named after him when it opened in June 2002.

Life

Forney was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and raised in Brooklyn, New York by a single mother. He said that he first became a prostitute at 13, and that the $40 made him feel rich "like Donald Trump." Rejected by his family, at 13 he was put in a group home, from which he soon ran away. He was in a series of foster placements, but found the streets preferable. He continued to work as a prostitute, often in women's clothing. He admitted to using crack cocaine "because it eased the degradation and fear of selling himself." He was arrested and jailed many times.

When he was 17, he joined the Safe Horizon Streetwork program, where counselors helped him acquire a Social Security card and a medical card. He completed his GED and, at the time of his death, had started to work with the staff to help other homeless youth. When he turned 18, he received a settlement for a childhood car accident, but he remained estranged from his family and was ineligible for city youth shelters after his 19th birthday. Proudly HIV-negative, he became good at peer counseling and promoted safety, carrying a pocketful of condoms and offering them to drug dealers. He 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." In 1996 he was invited to San Francisco to tell social workers about the needs of homeless transgender youth.

Ali

Ali ibn Abi Talib (/ˈɑːli, ɑːˈliː/;Arabic: علي بن أبي طالب‎, translit. ʿAlī bin Abī Ṭālib, Arabic pronunciation: [ʕaliː bɪn ʔabiː t̪ˤaːlɪb]; 13 Rajab, 21 BH – 21 Ramadan, 40 AH; 15 September 601 – 29 January 661) was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, ruling over the Islamic caliphate from 656 to 661.

Born to Abu Talib and Fatima bint Asad, Ali was the only person born in the sacred sanctuary of the Kaaba in Mecca, the holiest place in Islam, as many sources, especially Shia ones say. Ali was the first young male who accepted Islam. After migrating to Medina, he married Muhammad's daughter Fatimah. Ali took part in the early caravan raids from Mecca and later in almost all the battles fought by the nascent Muslim community. He was appointed caliph by Muhammad's Companions (Sahaba) in 656, after caliph Uthman ibn Affan was assassinated. Ali's reign saw civil unrest and in 661, he was attacked and assassinated by a Kharijite while praying in the Great Mosque of Kufa, dying two days later.