Bea Arthur's Son Discusses the Beloved Actress' Commitment to the LGBT Community and New Youth Shelter

As BroadwayWorld reported in August, a homeless shelter specifically for LGBT youth will open on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in honor of Bea Arthur, a staunch supporter of the LGBT community. In a feature for the Hollywood Reporter, Matthew Saks, Arthur's older son, discusses his mom's legacy within the LGBT community and the impact she had during the AIDS crisis, choosing to remain devoted to a group of people who were being increasingly pushed into the margins by the majority of society.

According to Saks, his mother wouldn't have wanted the new shelter to be named after her, "But too bad. She deserves it." Arthur's relationship with the Ali Forney Center, with which the new shelter will be associated, began in 2005 when Arthur heard through a friend that the organization was in dire financial straights. In response, Arthur did a benefit performance of her one-woman Broadway show and raised over $40,000. When she died three years later, Arthur left $300,000 to the center-the second largest sum that she provided in her will. With regard to her charity and corresponding legacy, Saks said "It seemed like all her charities were mostly about innocents - either kids or animals or gay or lesbian teens, who have a bigger fight than anybody can imagine."

For more information about the Ali Forney Center, visit AliForneyCenter.org, and to read the full Hollywood Reporter article, click here.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride