Gospel singer, minister and queer rights advocate Carl Bean has died. He was 77 years old.
Bean first rose to fame in the early 1960s as a soul singer in New York and Los Angeles, founding the Motown group Carl Bean and Universal Love. His profile continued to rise into the 1970s, and he hit a new level of fame in 1975 with the disco hit “I Was Born This Way.” As the title might suggest, Bean lived his life as a proud gay man throughout his career.
As a queer man, Bean claimed he’d been rejected by his family and his church. He, therefore, founded the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, a congregation aimed at LGBTQ African-Americans in 1982. Bean intended the church, which now has 17 individual locations worldwide, to “proclaim the ‘sacredness of all life’ thus focusing on empowering those who have been oppressed and made to feel shame.” Bean would also go on to found his own AIDS charity in 1985, the Minority Aids Project.
Related: Lady Gaga reveals Black, gay activist Carl Bean inspired “Born this Way”
“Archbishop Bean worked tirelessly for the liberation of the underserved and for LGBTQ people of faith and in doing so, helped many around the world find their way back to spirituality and religion,” the Unity Fellowship Church said in a statement marking Bean’s passing.
Bean’s life and work had a far-reaching effect on the future of the queer community. In May 2021, singer Lady Gaga revealed that her hit track “Born this Way” was inspired directly by Bean, saying “Thank you for decades of relentless love, bravery, and a reason to sing. So we can all feel joy, because we deserve joy. Because we deserve the right to inspire tolerance, acceptance and freedom for all.”
Bean passed away after a long battle with an undisclosed illness. In his 2010 autobiography, he wrote: “As I look back over this journey starting with my innocent days as a little boy running the streets of Baltimore, I see how love sustained me. Love from my biological mother, my grandmother, my godparents, friends, preachers…love born of a need for connection…to feel worth and wanted.”
Every LGBTQ American benefits from that love today. Goodnight, and thank you sir.
Kangol2
Bless this amazing pioneer. Thank you for your vision, courage and lifelong fight for LGBTQ equality, Rev. Carl Bean. May you rest in peace and power.
trojanboy
This life, well lived, gives me hope that there are decent human beings.
Rest in peace, great man.
Paris in Santiago
For me, Carl Bean was a solid rock, a beacon, over the decades that passed when queer politics got messy. His presence informed that love is love, and love unites us as a community worthy of rights and freedoms. He will be missed, but not forgotten. A true queer hero.
SDR94103
last week gaga claimed somebody else inspired born this way. she’s so fulloshit.
azjeff17
Rest in Power. “I Was Born This Way” meant so much to me as a 15yo gay boy in 1975 when there was very little public affirmation at the time.
stafcoyote
Requiem Æternam Dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat super eis, in Nomine Dominum Nostrum Jesu Christi, amen.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
I can’t believe thirty-seven years have past since I first me him. There used to a gay health clinic on Highland Ave just about Santa Monica, right next to where that Sizzler used to be. I met him there in 1984 when I went to get my first HIV test. RIP Rev. Bean. I am deep hurt the angels chose to come down and give you your wings. I do hope Lady Gaga releases some sort of statement regarding your passing so others will know about your influence on one of her most popular hits.
Cam
More articles like this. I’d never heard of him and so glad I know a little bit now. RIP Archbishop Bean!