Three decades before Lady Gaga belted out her hit song “Born This Way” from the album of the same title, the openly gay singer-turned-minister Carl Bean coined the gay disco anthem. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 26, 1944, the former gospel singer arrived in Los Angeles in the early 1970s with dreams of being a secular music artist.
The former Motown artist soon found a much higher calling. In the 1980s, Carl Bean founded the Minority AIDS Project as well as the Unity Fellowship Church of Los Angeles, a safe haven for Black members of the LGBTQ community, some with HIV/AIDS, to share their faith and be embraced not with judgment and condemnation but with love.
He believed that God is love and love is for everyone. In 1992, AHF honored the Rev. Carl Bean by naming the second of their three hospices after the icon. The Carl Bean House, located in Los Angeles in the historic WestAdams District, contained 25 beds and provided around-the-clock nursing services for the residents until its closure in 2006.
The Carl Bean campus is now home to In theMeantime Men’s Group, which serves black, gay, same-gender-loving, and bi-sexual men in Los Angeles County by educating, empowering, and providing a supportive environment. The Rev. Carl Bean continued to advocate, inspire, uplift, and serve the Black LGBTQ community until his passing on September 7, 2021. His impact and impact on the community lives on.
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