Harlem's Hate Pastor's Church May End Up Housing LGBT Youth

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

The bitter saga of the notoriously anti-gay church in Harlem, famous for its message of hate against the LGBT community, may have a happy ending after all. Call it karma or poetic justice, but the property that for years housed a sign with messages like "Jesus would stone homos," may end up providing refuge for homeless LGBT teens.

In the wake of Thursday's news that the ATLAH World Missionary Church in Harlem would be put up for auction in February as a result of years of unpaid bills by its notoriously anti-gay pastor Rev. James Manning, an online fundraiser has been set up to secure the property for the Ali Forney Center, a charitable organization dedicated to helping homeless and at risk LGBT youth.

"The biggest reason our youths are driven from their homes is because of homophobic and transphobic religious beliefs of their parents," said Carl Siciliano, founder and executive director of the Ali Forney Center.�"Because of this, it has been horrifying for us to have our youths exposed to Manning's messages inciting hatred and violence against our community. It has meant the world to us that so many Harlem residents have stood up to support our young people, and are now urging us to provide urgently needed care at the site of so much hatred."

A donation page has been set up to raise the $200,000 needed to secure the property.

Siciliano added that turning the property into a center to help LGBT youth would "truly be a trump of love over hatred."

Stacy Parker Le Melle, founder of Harlem's "Love Not Hate" movement that has protested Manning's church in recent months spoke with the Huffington Post.

"When the ATLAH story broke on Thursday, immediately I heard from neighbors: Wouldn't it be amazing if an LGBT group could acquire the property?" Le Melle said. "What if it were the Ali Forney Center? We all knew that this would be poetic justice. We need to care for those kicked out of homes, often on religious-based grounds. We need to care for those most vulnerable to ATLAH's hate speech."

Donations can be made online on the Ali Forney Center's website.