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Making Room: Three Decades of Fighting for Beds, Belonging, and a Safe Place for LGBTQ Youth Audiobook
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From a pioneering advocate for LGBTQ youth, 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.
“A gut-wrenchingly poignant real-life saga . . . an unputdownable account of what it looks like when compassion is harnessed to funding and policy.”—Tim Murphy, author of Christodora and Speech Team
What power does a long-disenfranchised community hold to transform the treatment of its most abused members? How can we locate that power?
Carl Siciliano met Ali Forney—a Black nonbinary teenager known for fierce loyalty to friends and an unshakeable faith that “my God will love me for who I am”—in 1994 while working at a daytime center for homeless youth in New York City. Nineteen years old, Forney was one of thousands Siciliano encountered who had been driven from their homes by rejecting families, forced to struggle in the streets due to homophobic and transphobic violence in the shelters.
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, racist policing, and the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic. Anguished by Forney’s loss, Siciliano fought to create homes where unhoused queer teens could live safely, with their human dignity at last affirmed, while he helped lead a movement that compelled New York City to invest millions of dollars in kids who’d been ignored for decades.
Siciliano writes with loving affection for Forney and many other queer teens, showing deep respect for their wisdom, courage, and spiritual integrity. Their stories illuminate the harsh realities faced by hundreds of thousands of LGBTQ youths suffering from homelessness across our nation. And, exposing the political and religious forces that continue to endanger LGBTQ youths, he makes a clarion call for their protection.
Written with heart and profound insight, Making Room is a landmark personal narrative, bringing to life an untold chapter of LGBTQ history and testifying to the power of community, solidarity, and the human spirit.
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"The key to Carl Siciliano’s candid, artful, soul-altering book, I think, is that it makes room for the reader. We are right there with him as he faces challenges such as few of us will have to face. We see what he sees, feel what he feels, believe what he believes—and are changed by the experience. I know I was."
— Paul Elie, author of The Life You Save May Be Your Own
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Making Room is a must read for anyone who cares about our LGBTQ homeless youth. The story is riveting, emotional, powerful and an important part of our history. Carl has lived a life of service and love.
— David Mixner, activist, performer, and author -
Carl Siciliano’s Making Room guides us from the cold, pitiless streets faced by the homeless youth to a warmer place; from heartbreak to a place of hope. . . . the fate of our queer kids is intertwined with us all.
— Christian Cooper, New York Times bestselling author of Better Living Through Birding -
It is tragic that so many LGBTQ youths are forced into homelessness, all too often due to their parents’ religious beliefs. I hope this compelling book will be read by many in the church as well as many who wished that churches treated LGBTQ youth not like lepers, but who they are: beloved children of God.
— James Martin, SJ, author of Building a Bridge -
This heartfelt narrative serves as both a reminder of the challenges faced by marginalized communities and a testament to the transformative power of service and love. A must-read for anyone seeking to understand, empathize, and advocate for the most marginalized among us.
— Kristen Lovell, director of HBO’s The Stroll -
May this book inspire others to recognize the unmet needs around them, and find ways to creatively solve the problems that plague this world.
— Ross Murray, Vice President, GLAAD Media Institute -
Making Room is a call to action—a reminder that in the fight for inclusivity and equality, no one should be left behind.
— Emanuel Xavier, former homeless teen, author, and activist -
A gut-wrenchingly poignant real-life saga . . . Carl Siciliano has written an unputdownable account of what it looks like when compassion is harnessed to funding and policy.
— Tim Murphy, author of Christodora and Speech Team -
Homelessness is cruel and vile, and I am haunted by the fact that LGBT youth are still being displaced. An essential read for all of us who survived homelessness and its atrocities!
— Junior LaBeija, trailblazing, pioneering icon of the Ballroom Community and star of Paris is Burning -
An absolutely beautiful and breathtaking book destined to be a classic. Before Siciliano founded the Ali Forney Center, New York City was a city of danger, violence, and despair for homeless LGBTQ youth—he didn't just provide shelter; he crafted sanctuaries where love and care were personalized.
— Fr. Adam Bucko, author of Let Heartbreak Be Your Guide
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