New Book: MAKING ROOM By Ali Forney Center Founder Carl Siciliano

In 2002, Carl Siciliano founded the Ali Forney Center (AFC), which has grown to become the nation’s largest and most comprehensive housing program for homeless LGBTQ youth. Now, the pioneering advocate for LGBTQ youth has penned a new book, MAKING ROOM – a gripping, impassioned account of how an unhoused queer youth’s murder compelled him to create the nation’s largest housing program for homeless LGBTQ teens.

About MAKING ROOM – from Penguin Random House:

Carl Siciliano met Ali Forney—a Black nonbinary teenager overflowing with life—in 1994 while working at a daytime center for homeless youth in New York City. Nineteen years old and driven from home, Forney was the heart of the community, known for infectious laughter, fierce loyalty to friends, and an unshakeable faith in their essential human value.

Then Forney was murdered, a moment of horror and devastation that exposed the brutality that teenagers like Forney faced in a city marked by gentrification, housing insecurity, and the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic. Motivated by the memory of Forney, Siciliano fought to create a home where unhoused teens could live and feel loved.

In MAKING ROOM, Siciliano shares what he learned from Forney and thousands of other queer teens—wounded, brave, vibrant people who lived true to their inner experiences and created family under desperate circumstances—while he helped lead a movement that compelled New York City to invest millions of dollars in kids who’d been ignored for decades.

MAKING ROOM includes dozens of never-before-told stories of the lives of disowned LGBTQ teens, which read like cinematic, absorbing vignettes. Siciliano’s voice and advocacy are a rudder of wisdom and affection, guiding readers to connect both with themselves and this compelling world of queer, homeless youth.

In addition to his advocacy, Carl’s work has been featured by NPR, CNN, The Daily Show, and New York magazine. His writing has appeared in HuffPost, The Advocate, and The New York Times. Regular readers may recall I shared the announcement of the new memoir back in February. I pre-ordered my copy then and it arrived yesterday. I highly recommend MAKING ROOM. You can purchase MAKING ROOM now from Amazon, Penguin Random House and other major booksellers.