CELEBRATING ARCHBISHOP CARL BEAN

May 26, 2019 will mark the 75th birthday of the Presiding Prelate of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, the Archbishop Carl Bean.  Archbishop Bean has enjoyed a wonderful and illustrious career and we want to give him his just due as he walks into the Jubilee of his journey. 

Carl Bean began his magnificent career with the iconic Alex Bradford and The Specials in the 1960's and traveled the world singing gospel music, including their huge hit "I'm Too Close." His worked with some of the greatest voices in gospel music, while enduring the Jim Crow South and the stinging racism and homophobia visited upon him and many, but he persevered and helped to shape the sound of gospel music as we know it today.  

In 1977, pursuing a solo career after traveling the world and performing on Broadway, Bean signed to Motown Records and not only shaped his direction, he changed the LGBTQ Community forever!  Bean went into the studio to record the song that would become his anthemic disco hit "I Was Born This Way," a rousing, passionate, gospel-fueled, empowerment-filled opus which has been remixed by DJ's from around the globe and inspired the title and theme of Lady Gaga's 2011 multiplatinum album. She said of him, "I was at a point in my life of trying to get access to things, and there was so much I couldn't figure out. I heard about this preacher, Reverend Carl Bean in Los Angeles. Someone introduced me to his song and it just answered everything that I was trying to get an answer to."  He would later found both the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, which he did in 1982, where he spoke against religious persecution, walked many into liberation theology and developed a movement around the country and the globe. In 1985, he founded Minority AIDS Project (MAP), in 1985, where he spoke against religious persecution, walked many into liberation theology and was among the first and staunchest voices to cry loud about the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, while showing love and compassion to those surviving through the crisis, receiving the esteemed NAACP IMAGE AWARD for his community work.

For that reason and so many more, we will give honor where honor is due and extend the opportunity to everyone--every queer kid on the dance floor in their small town, twirling to the truth that they were indeed born this way, every preacher who can now preach a mighty word from her own pulpit in spirit and in truth--to send tributes and to bless the Archbishop just as he has been a blessing to the communities, to the music industry and to the world at-large. We want to bless Archbishop and as he has given so much to the LGBTQ, HIV/AIDS and African-American communities, we want to give back to him and take care of him financially in this season of his journey.