Carl Bean, the 77-year-old American gospel singer who sung the gay pride hymn “I Was Born This Way,” has died.
Bean “made the transition into eternal life” after a long illness, according to a statement released by the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, a church for Black LGBTQ+ worshippers that Bean founded.
Bean was born in Baltimore in 1944, and after his mother died during an abortion, he was raised by his godparents. He told Vice in 2016 that his uncle sexually molested him as a child and that his family shunned him because he was gay.
At the age of 16, he traveled to New York City to escape his turbulent background and pursue a career as a gospel singer. After several years of working with gospel musician Alex Bradford in that city, he eventually relocated to Los Angeles, where he has resided since.
Bean formed the band Carl Bean and Universal Love in Los Angeles, and the group finally caught the attention of Motown Records. Bean recorded ‘I Was Born This Way,’ a disco single written by Chris Spierer and Bunny Jones and first sung by Valentino, after joining with the label. Bean popularised the song, and its gay pride message (“I’m happy, I’m carefree, and I’m gay / I was born this way”) helped it become a long-standing anthem for the LGBTQ+ Pride movement, as well as the basis for Lady Gaga’s 2011 smash “Born This Way.”
Bean began to reconnect more deeply with the Christian religion he had held since he was a kid as a result of the track’s success, eventually becoming ordained as a minister in 1982. He formed the Unity Fellowship of Christ Church in the same year, with the goal of providing space and network for Black LGBTQ+ Christians. It now has nearly 20 connected churches across the United States and the Caribbean.
Bean released a memoir in 2010, titled ‘I Was Born This Way,’ after his Motown hit.
