Jingle 2008

On Thursday night, Aaron and I attended Jingle 2008, the fifth annual holiday fundraising party for the Ali Forney Center, NYC's shelter for homeless LGBT youth. Held at the lovely Meatpacking District loft of David Raleigh and Richard Bahl, the party brought out a nice crowd of Gotham's homorati including pop star Ari Gold, Tony winner B.D. Wong, gossip maven Michael Musto, activist Eric Leven, author Wayne Hoffman, and drag king Murray Hill, who did a hilarious bit of stand-up in the lower level lounge. The first photo in the above slideshow was taken by photographer Carlos Gustavo Monroy, go here for his gallery from the party. For full-screen photos and captions from my slideshow, go here.

Ali Forney Center executive director Carl Siciliano took the microphone mid-evening to make an impassioned plea for support, noting that the gay community continuously exhorts young people to "come out, come out" and should be there to lend a hand to those kids whose outing lands them on the streets. Siciliano also mentioned that the fiscal situation at AFC is so dire this holiday season, his staffers had to purchase Xmas presents for the kids with their personal credit cards. Things turned lighter for a moment when someone in the crowd suggested that Siciliano perform a strip tease for donations. That didn't happen, which is quite unfortunate because Carl does rather bring to mind a certain Sir Mix-A-Lot song.

As you may recall, last month Carl guest-posted here on JMG with a request for help. He sends his gratitude to JMG readers for their generosity and will return here with another message on Xmas Eve. Please visit the Ali Forney Center site for a list of their food, clothing and sundries needs if you'd like to send a care package to NYC's homeless LGBT youth. Immediate online monetary donations can be made here.