Terry Bean

Terrence Patrick Bean is an American political fundraiser, a civil rights activist, and LGBTQ rights movement activist. He is known for co-founding several national LGBTQ rights organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. , he is the CEO and President of Bean Investment Real Estate and resides in Portland, Oregon. Since 2014, Bean had been the subject of sexual assault allegations; all charges were dismissed in January 2022.

Early life Terry Bean is a fifth-generation Oregonian and was born in Portland, Oregon. He is the son of Ormond and Jean Bean. He graduated from Lake Oswego High School, after which he attended the University of Oregon on the Chick Evans Golf Scholarship, In 1971, he began lobbying the Oregon State Legislature and the city council of Eugene, Oregon, In 1979, Bean helped to organize the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

Bean was the primary fundraiser for GRNL, The GRNL 48 eventually became the HRC's Federal Club. and takes part in deciding the organization's political endorsements.

Other political and community involvement In Oregon, Bean co-founded the Right to Privacy PAC with four others in the early 1980s. The Portland-based group was the first statewide gay rights PAC in Oregon.

In 2018, Bean spearheaded a campaign to rename SW Stark, a prominent street in downtown Portland, Oregon, to SW Harvey Milk Street after LGBTQ activist Harvey Milk. On June 14, 2018, Portland City Council voted unanimously in support of the change.

Fundraising Terry Bean's political involvement is often behind the scenes as a fundraiser,

In 1992, Bean helped raise over $1,000,000 in the successful campaign to defeat the anti-gay Oregon Measure 9, which would have amended the state constitution with a provision declaring homosexuality "abnormal, wrong, unnatural, and perverse".

Role in the Democratic Party

Terry Bean has been a lifelong Democrat and has considerable influence in the party as a member of the Democratic National Committee He was the main fundraiser for Oregon Governor Barbara Roberts' 1990 campaign.

Friendship with Senator Gordon Smith Former Oregon Senator Gordon H. Smith, a Republican, was elected in 1996 as a social conservative. After the election, Bean, who had campaigned against Smith, had a meeting with the new senator, in which they reached an unexpected understanding. Smith, a conservative Mormon, was able to relate to Bean's experience as a member of a marginalized demographic because of his own experiences. Referring to his Mormon heritage, Smith said of Bean, "When you grow up as part of a group that has suffered discrimination, it is easier to listen with feeling to the stories of others, like Terry, who have felt the jackboot on the back of their neck. For me, empathy is a call to action."

Smith co-sponsored the Employment Non-discrimination Act (ENDA), the Ryan White Care Act, and teamed up with Senator Ted Kennedy to introduce a hate crimes protection bill. Smith regularly read incidents of anti-LGBTQ hate crimes into the congressional record to raise awareness of this issue. Smith's support of LGBTQ rights won him the endorsement of the Human Rights Campaign for his 2002 re-election bid, although Bean did not personally endorse him. Law enforcement sources said Bean was charged with "two counts of sodomy in the third degree, a felony, and sex abuse in the third degree, a misdemeanor."

After the case continued for over a year, lawyers for Bean and the youth reached a civil agreement, which the judge ultimately rejected. The alleged victim declined to testify, his attorney Lori Deveny stating that "he did not seek out this prosecution and made his unwillingness to testify known at every step of the process". In a statement, Bean wrote, "I take some measure of comfort that the world now knows what I have always known – that I was falsely accused and completely innocent of every accusation that was made." In September 2019, Bean's former partner was found guilty of third-degree sodomy and third-degree sexual abuse, which The Oregonian reported as "a blow" to Bean's claims of innocence. Bean was originally to be put on trial for similar charges in November of that year, but the trial was postponed.

On January 14, 2022, all criminal charges against Bean were dismissed because the alleged victim declined to participate in prosecution.