After surviving childhood abuse, Archbishop Carl Bean forged a path to New York and Hollywood to do the one thing he knew he was put on earth to do: sing. Bean got a break when Motown tapped him to record the disco song “I Was Born This Way,” which quickly became a major gay anthem. When the AIDS crisis hit, however, Bean soon found himself drawn to a different calling, founding the Minority AIDS Project and the Unity Fellowship Church — the first LGBTQ+ church for people of color.
