Carl Bean, singer of LGBT pride anthem I Was Born This Way, dies aged 77

[Eugene]

Also: Carl Bean, singer of gay pride anthem I Was Born This Way, dies aged 77 (The Guardian)

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Source: BBC

Carl Bean, singer of LGBT pride anthem I Was Born This Way, dies aged 77

By Mark Savage
BBC music reporter

8 September 2021

Archbishop Carl Bean, a former Motown singer best known for the 1977 gay liberation anthem I Was Born This Way, has died at the age of 77.

Featuring the lyrics "I'm happy, I'm carefree, and I'm gay, I was born this way", it was a disco hit in the US and inspired Lady Gaga's Born This Way.

She credited him as an inspiration, saying his song was "like a sermon".

At the height of his music career, Bean worked with Dionne Warwick, Sammy Davis Jr, Burt Bacharach and Miles Davis.

But he turned down the offer of more work at Motown when they asked him to sing more commercially-viable love songs about women.

Instead, he went on to become an Aids activist and founded a network of LGBT churches.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-58493076

The singer later became an Archbishop, establishing a network of LGBT churches (Simon and Schuster)

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Source: The Guardian

Carl Bean, singer of gay pride anthem I Was Born This Way, dies aged 77

Motown-signed vocalist later became a minister and founded network of LGBT-friendly churches

Ben Beaumont-Thomas
@ben_bt
Wed 8 Sep 2021 12.54 BST

Carl Bean, the US gospel artist and minister who sang the gay pride anthem I Was Born This Way, has died aged 77.

A statement from the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, a church for Black LGBTQ+ worshippers founded by Bean, said he “made transition into eternal life” following a lengthy illness.

“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 church stated.

Bean was born in Baltimore in 1944 and raised by his godparents after his mother died during an abortion. He alleged that his uncle sexually abused him as a child, and that he was rejected by his family for being gay: “I felt like, now I’ma be kicked out because I’m a queer. I attempted suicide and landed in the mental health ward of a big hospital,” he told Vice in 2016.

He relocated to New York City aged 16 to escape his troubled upbringing and pursue a gospel singing career, where he worked with gospel bandleader Alex Bradford and others. After another move to Los Angeles, which became his home ever since, he formed the group Carl Bean and Universal Love, and caught the ear of Motown Records.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/08/carl-bean-singer-i-was-born-this-way-dies-aged-77

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