Carl Bean is the founding prelate of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement

Unity Fellowship Church Movement

Unity Fellowship Church Movement is a Los Angeles, California based Protestant Christian denomination. It was founded in 1982 as Unity Fellowship Church, Los Angeles by Reverend Carl Bean as a liberal mainline church that is explicitly welcoming of LGBT African Americans...

, a liberal protestant denomination that is particularly welcoming of lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

, gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 and bisexual African Americans. Before founding the first church of the denomination, the Unity Fellowship Church, Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, in 1975, Bean was a Motown and disco

Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

 singer, noted particularly for his version of the early gay liberation song "I Was Born This Way

I Was Born This Way

"I Was Born This Way" is a disco song by Valentino, released in 1975, then by Carl Bean in 1977 , and a remake in 1995 by country singer Johnny Rodriguez. It was written by Chris Spierer and Bunny Jones. The record was first released on the Motown-distributed Gaiee Records and performed by...

" off of disco label West End Records

West End Records

West End Records is a record label, which is known as one of the most prominent labels in dance music’s history along with Prelude Records, Salsoul Records and Casablanca Records.-History:...

.

In 1982 Bean became an activist, working on behalf of people with AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

.

Bean's autobiography, I Was Born This Way, came out in 2010.

Books

– Bean's autobiography