Carl Bean (May 26, 1944 – September 7, 2021) was an American singer and activist who was the founding prelate of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, a

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

denomination that is particularly welcoming of

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

and

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

. Before founding the first church of the denomination, the Unity Fellowship Church,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, in 1975, Bean was a

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

and

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

singer, noted particularly for his version of the early gay liberation song "

I Was Born This Way "I Was Born This Way" is a disco song written by Chris Spierer and Bunny Jones. The song was first recorded by Valentino, released in 1975, then by Carl Bean in 1977 (both artists for Motown). The record was first released on the Motown-distrib ...

". He was openly gay. In 1982, Bean became an activist, working on behalf of people with

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

. Bean's autobiography, ''I Was Born This Way'', came out in 2010. He died at the age of 77 in 2021.Archbishop Carl Bean has passed away
/ref>

References

Books

* – Bean's autobiography {{DEFAULTSORT:Bean, Carl 1944 births 2021 deaths HIV/AIDS activists American Protestant religious leaders American gay musicians LGBT African Americans American LGBT singers LGBT Protestant clergy American disco musicians Motown artists 20th-century LGBT people 21st-century LGBT people 20th-century American clergy 21st-century American clergy 20th-century African-American male singers 20th-century American singers 20th-century American male singers 21st-century African-American people