Carl Bean

Carl Bean (May 26, 1944 – September 7, 2021) was an African-American singer and activist who was the founding prelate of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, a liberal Protestant denomination that is particularly welcoming of lesbians, gay and bisexual African Americans.

Life and activism Bean was born on May 26, 1944, in Baltimore, Maryland. He was openly gay.

In 1982, Bean became an activist, working on behalf of people with AIDS in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, coinciding with the rise of the AIDS epidemic.

Bean founded the Minority AIDS Project in Los Angeles with the goal of supporting people with AIDS, especially young African-American men. It is still in operation.

Bean's autobiography, I Was Born This Way, came out in 2010. The film biography directed by Daniel Junge and Sam Pollard, "I Was Born This Way" premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 5, 2025. He died at the age of 77 on September 7, 2021.