My Xmas present to myself

Joe has a guest post up right now. Carl Siciliano the founder and director of the Ali Forney Center has posted a letter asking for donations.

The Ali Forney Center has experienced some serious funding cutbacks and needs help.

I became aware of the Ali Forney Center a couple of years ago, when Joe posted about it before. Since then, whenever I have had a few dollars to spare I have sent what I can. My childhood may not have been ideal, but at least I wasn't thrown out of the house. God knows I was such a little queen that my parents must have known I was gay. After I came out at the age of 20, well after I had made my own escape from the parental clutches, there followed many years of being kept at arms length, but I was never completely cut off from my family.

The Ali Forney Center is for young LGBT kids who don't even have the lukewarm support that I got from my family.

I had earmarked some money to get myself a Xmas present that I really wanted. Instead I am donating that money to the Ali Forney Center.

I don't expect anyone else to do the same, but I do ask that if you read this blog that you donate what you can. I know times are tough and like a lot of people right now I am worried about the security of my job. But I'm a grown up and I have the ability and the experience to see myself through hard times, even if it means I wind up mopping floors. These young people don't have those resources or that experience.

Please donate and post a link to the online donation page on your blog. The more money that goes to the center, the better the chances are that the Forney Center will be able to continue to make a difference in the lives of kids that have been thrown away by their families.

If you need added motivation, If you don't donate, I will give your phone number to Doris. You do NOT understand the meaning of the word suffering until you've had that crazy old woman chewing your ear off, so don't make me do it.