I Was Born This Way tells the story of singer, activist, and archbishop Carl Bean. Surviving racism, homophobia and childhood trauma, Bean found his voice through song – first as a gospel singer in Harlem’s Christian Tabernacle Choir, and then later performing with his group Carl Bean and Universal Love on their 1974 album “Universal Love.” However, it was the recording of the 1977 Motown hit I Was Born This Way that would earn him fame, as the song was  celebrated as the world’s first gay anthem.

Six years in the making, the film follows the little known story of Bean’s life from his turbulent childhood growing up Black and queer. Bean eschewed a mainstream music career, instead choosing a vocation in activism.  He started the Minority AIDS Project,  serving a vital role for underserved populations during the AIDS Crisis, and he also founded Unity Fellowship Church, the first LGBTQ+ ministry.

Archbishop Bean bravely uplifted people with HIV-AIDS at a time when many with the illness were feared and spurned. “I truly believe in the love ethic,” he says in an archival interview. “That is what got me through all of the hell… My motto was, ‘God is love and love is for everyone.’”

Using innovative rotoscope animation and featuring appearances by Lady Gaga, Questlove, Billy Porter, and Dionne Warwick, I Was Born This Way celebrates the life and legacy of this unapologetic gay Black trailblazer and his resounding message, “love is for everyone.”

The film also tracks the surprising back-story of the song and the legacy of Bean’s version, which inspired Lady Gaga’s new modern LGBTQ+ anthem, Born This Way.  “It’s a great song,” Lady Gaga says in the trailer, referring to the title track. “What Carl did, not just as a singer but as an activist is very special.”

Questlove and Jamie Lee Curtis and Billy Porter joined forces to executive producethe film, which was produced by Wellington Love, Daniel Junge, and Jed Alan. Love observed, “We’re living in a time when our government is systematically erasing LGBTQ and BIPOC people from our collective American history, so a film like I Was Born This Way is not only a means of ensuring a selfless humanitarian like Archbishop Carl Bean is not lost or forgotten, it is also an act of resistance.”

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT – DANIEL JUNGE

Often great documentaries find you rather than the other way around. In 2018, I was researching a series on the intersection of music and social action/protest music. One of the episodes was going to be on sex, and the anchor story would be Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.” In researching that song, I found out about the 1977 disco hit “I Was Born This Way” and it’s singer, Carl Bean, who had dropped out of Motown to become a pastor for a mostly Black, queer congregation.

When that series never came to be, Bean’s story stuck in my craw. Researching further, I found out his church was in LA…just a few miles from our production office. So, I sent him an email and was surprised to hear back almost immediately. Several months later, in the first days of what would become a global pandemic, we were shooting with the Archbishop. We thought those two days of material would be the foundation for a 30 or 40-minute short.

As any viewer will see, I WAS BORN THIS WAY proved to be much more than that. Six years later, it’s a film not only about Archbishop Bean but about the evolution of a song and a message and the process behind it, as well as the legacy of that song and the man who sang it.

I had the pleasure of working as a story editor with Sam Pollard on an earlier film, THEY KILLED SISTER DOROTHY. I’m still a little surprised he deigned to co-direct this film with me; there’s no more respected voice in our business. I trust Sam implicitly and really appreciate his partnership on this project. Slowly but surely, Sam and I were able to enlist some heavy-hitters in the making of this film. First Billy Porter, then Questlove, then Gaga…I think their involvement is a testament not so much to me or even Sam (and certainly not the film’s budget!) but to Archbishop Bean, his story, and his message.

Personally, I don’t intend my films to have any particular “message.” If you do, when it takes you nearly six years to make a film, the environment for which you intended that message changes. It turns out that in 2025, the core message of Archbishop Bean – and hopefully of the finished film – is incredibly timely. Now, more than ever, we need to amplify his message that “love is for everyone.”

ABOUT ARCHBISHOP CARL BEAN

LOVE IS FOR EVERYONE. This simple principle defines the ethos running through the life and work of the indomitable Archbishop Carl Bean – a prodigious musical talent, AIDS activist, spiritual leader and unapologetic out gay Black man whose legacy reverberates throughout society.

Born in Baltimore in 1944 to teenage parents, Carl Bean was raised by loving adoptive godparents and an older sister, Martha, who called him “Sammy.” Though Bean’s family life was happy, he always knew he “was different than a lot of the other little boys,” and like so many queer kids of the era, found himself shunned. Bean’s life took a darker turn as he became the victim of sexual molestation.

But Bean, blessed with a “big voice,” found escape and companionship in music, and sang constantly. Another ballast in young Carl’s life was the church. In 1955, neighbors brought him to Providence Baptist Church, where the Reverend Marcus Garvey Wood – a colleague of MLK – preached civil rights as well as spiritual uplift. This opened Bean’s eyes to the ideas of liberation and social justice that would later inform his adult work.

Bean’s life would change radically around the age of 15. After the revelation of a romantic relationship with a neighbor boy led to a physical confrontation with his adoptive father, Bean attempted suicide and was placed in the psych ward at University Hospital.

Thankfully, Bean found refuge by moving in with his birth mother but within a year, she got pregnant and tragically – like so many women in the pre-Roe vs. Wade era – died from complications following a botched abortion. The 16-year-old decided it was time to “get the hell out of Baltimore” and flee to New York.

In New York, Bean’s passion for music would blossom as he attended Christian Tabernacle in Harlem and became a member of its renowned choir. Known for his voice and charismatic personality, Bean became close with singers Dionne Warwick, Cissy Houston and Estelle Brown. Bean began singing professionally, including with the Gospel Wonders (most notably on their hit “As Long As I’ve Got Jesus” – 1965), and toured with them and other groups. But Bean felt creatively and spiritually unfulfilled, and in 1972 he boarded a bus and relocated to Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles, Bean would do what he felt was his life’s calling – write music to change the world. He formed a group called Universal Love which emulated the “message music” of the day, like The Staples Singers and Marvin Gaye. But Universal Love’s first and only album (1974) was pigeon-holed as “gospel” and never found the airplay Bean wanted.

He thought his musical career was over until a fateful phone call from Motown Records. Motown enlisted him to sing “I Was Born This Way” – a declaratively gay song originally performed by Valentino in 1975, but Bean’s version would be to a new beat that was sweeping the nation – disco. Bean’s 1977 recording of “I Was Born This Way” became a hit in clubs, making it the first gay anthem.

This anthem would not only move and inspire a generation of LGBTQ culture, it has remained a popular dance song for DJ’s like Quentin Harris and Questlove. The song and Bean’s story inspired Lady Gaga’s modern LGBTQ anthem “Born This Way” (2011).

For Bean, the success of “I Was Born This Way” in the late 70’s led to Motown offering him a new album of more traditional love songs. But Bean, acknowledging he had now become a role model in the Black gay community, refused, saying instead his role “was to be a change agent in society.”

The AIDS epidemic of the early ‘80s, which devastated gay communities, called Bean into action. Bean began volunteering with the Shanti Foundation in West Hollywood. But across LA, he realized, Black and brown AIDS patients were being neglected, so he made it his mission to visit and comfort them, often until their dying hour.

This work led to the 1985 formation of the Minority AIDS Project – the first AIDS organization dedicated to people of color – which provided access to healthcare, HIV/AIDS education, HIV testing and social services. His work with the organization paired him with his old pal Dionne Warwick and firebrand US Representative Maxine Waters and cast him into the public spotlight in Los Angeles.

Around the same time Bean started his work in AIDS activism, he recognized he could be more effective as a member of the clergy. In 1982, he passed his ordination exam and became Reverend Carl Bean. The following year, he gave an Easter service at a local cabaret, and the men asked “Rev, where are we gonna meet next Sunday?”

This was the beginning of Unity Fellowship Church, the first Christian church for Black LGBTQ people. Bean knew better than anyone how powerful and transformative it would be to create a safe, welcoming place of worship where you could be your entire self and experience Christian fellowship. Something the Black church had historically denied queer people. As the congregation grew, word of Unity’s existence spread across the country and ignited a demand for similar services in New York City and beyond.

There are currently 17 Unity Fellowships around the country and internationally. In 1992, Bean was consecrated as the first Presiding Bishop of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement and in 1999 he was made its first Archbishop.

An indefatigable Bean would go on for decades using his big voice to advocate for people in need, fight racial discrimination and homophobia, and challenge the Black church and its weaponization of scripture to demonize LGBTQ people. His passion for music never waned as he continued to write and perform throughout his later years.

Carl Bean passed away in September 2021 but you don’t have to look far to see he is still very much with us. His conviction that “love is for everyone” lives on in the congregations that gather every Sunday at Unity churches all over the world. His trailblazing work in AIDS advocacy is still saving lives. His big voice still has the power to inspire artists and summon the children to the dance floor. Over the course of a textured and dynamic life, Bean was known by many names — Sammy, Baby Boy, Uncle Carl, Carl Bean, Reverend Bean, Archbishop. He was a devoted friend, a loving brother and an inspiring mentor.

He was a survivor, a warrior and a true patriot. In a time when the U.S. government is targeting LGBTQ citizens and engaged in a deliberate campaign to erase people of color from American history, it is imperative to document and celebrate the enduring legacy of Carl Bean – a gifted, fearless gay Black man who personified compassion. A great
American who believed God is love and love is for everyone.

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist with a focus on travel, lifestyle, entertainment and hospitality. He has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He enjoys discovering delicious eats, tasting spirited treats, and being mesmerized by musical beats.