Carl Bean

Carl Bean (born 1944) is the founding prelate of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, a liberal ‎protestant denomination that is particularly welcoming of lesbian, gay and bisexual African ‎Americans. Before founding the first church of the denomination, the Unity Fellowship Church, Los ‎Angeles, in 1975, Bean was a Motown and disco singer, noted particularly for his version of the ‎early gay liberation song "I Was Born This Way" off of disco label West End Records.‎
In 1982 Bean became an activist, working on behalf of people with AIDS.‎

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Bean