Ali Forney

The killing of Ali Forney occurred on December 5, 1997. Forney was an African-American gay and gender non-conforming transgender youth who also used the name Luscious.

Forney was raised by their single mother in Brooklyn. They started working as a sex worker at age 13, and they were subsequently rejected by their family. They were homeless 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 to social workers.

In December 1997, Forney was shot to death in Harlem. They were the third young transgender sex worker murdered in Harlem within a period of several months. The murder case was investigated by the NYPD, but was never solved. In 2002, the Ali Forney Center for homeless LGBT youth was named after the murder victim.

Background Forney was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and raised in Brooklyn, 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. Forney, assigned male at birth, continued to work as a sex worker, often dressed in women's clothing. Forney admitted to using crack cocaine "because it eased the degradation and fear" from sex work.

At 17, Forney joined the Safe Horizon Streetwork program, where counselors helped them acquire a Social Security card and a medical card. Forney completed a GED

Over seventy people attended Forney's memorial service. 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.