A most unlikely ndidate for a rerdg reer the early 80s, Carl Bean not only refed to hi that he was gay, but his biggt h was also ABOUT beg gay "I Was Born This Way. Carl Bean was an early in the LGBTQ muny at a time when beg gay the Black muny was greatly shunned and srned by the black church, Carl Bean biggt and only h on Motown rerds was 1977 “I Was Born This Way,” was a dis club smash about gay pri before existed. [...]
Contents:
- STEVE BRONSKI, OF THE PNEERG GAY BAND BRONSKI BEAT, DI AT 61
- PATRICK HAGGERTY, ‘LOST PNEER’ OF GAY COUNTRY MIC, DI AT 78
- PATRICK HAGGERTY, REGARD AS THE FIRST OPENLY GAY COUNTRY MIC SGER, DEAD AT 78
- FAMO GAY PEOPLE WHO DIED OF AIDS
- 2ND OPENLY GAY BLACK SGER ON MOTOWN RERDS CARL BEAN HAS DIED, WHO WAS THE FIRST?
STEVE BRONSKI, OF THE PNEERG GAY BAND BRONSKI BEAT, DI AT 61
He was part of a Brish tr whose songs often directly addrsed gay them and issu a way few other pop mic acts were dog. * gay singers dead *
AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTHe was part of a Brish tr whose songs often directly addrsed gay them and issu a way few other pop mic acts were Cor/Redferns, via Getty ImagSteve Bronski, part of the 1980s Brish synth-pop tr Bronski Beat, whose members were openly gay at a time when that was unmon and whose early songs unabashedly addrsed homophobia and other gay issu, died after a fire on Dec. It was a stark story of a young gay man’s pe om a provcial town where he had endured a homophobic attack; a hntg chos repeats, “Run away, turn away. A follow-up, “Why?, ” another chart succs, was equally direct, the lyrics speakg to the ostracism and social disapproval experienced by gay people.
”At the time, a number of mastream performers — Elton John, the Village People, Boy Gee — telegraphed gayns, often wh stereotypil flamboyance, but they rarely addrsed gay issu directly song.
The album sleeve listed the “mimum age for lawful homosexual relatnships between men” European untri, an effort to unrsre that the age Bra at the time, 21, was higher than was almost everywhere else. The sleeve also clud a phone number for a gay legal advice Bronski said the tr didn’t start out as a polil or social statement. “We were jt wrg songs that spoke about our liv at the time, ” he told the magaze Gay Tim 2018.
PATRICK HAGGERTY, ‘LOST PNEER’ OF GAY COUNTRY MIC, DI AT 78
Patrick Haggerty, the first openly gay untry mic sger, died Monday several weeks after sufferg a stroke. * gay singers dead *
Whaley said that though Bronski Beat’s bt-known songs had gay-centric lyrics, “their appeal crossed the boundari of sexual alignment.
PATRICK HAGGERTY, REGARD AS THE FIRST OPENLY GAY COUNTRY MIC SGER, DEAD AT 78
It's always heartbreakg to fd out that a beloved gay celebry has died of AIDS. AIDS is a disease which effects an dividual's immune system, for which ... * gay singers dead *
“It was a lot easier livg London, ” he told Classic Pop magaze 2019, explag why he and other gay men had gravated to the cy, “sce there was a thrivg gay scene pared to other parts of the untry. “I thk a lot of the songs are as relevant today as they were all those years ago, ” he told Gay Tim. A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn B, Page 11 of the New York edn wh the headle: Steve Bronski, 61, Is Dead; Part of Bronski Beat Band That Addrsed Gay Issu.
FAMO GAY PEOPLE WHO DIED OF AIDS
The late, inic sger-songwrer Juan Gabriel never officially me out as gay, but on the anniversary of his ath, LGBTQ Lato wrers reflect on the posive impact he had on their liv. * gay singers dead *
Pri that beme a much-remixed club favore — and who then beme a mister and AIDS activist, foundg a church Los Angel that sought to serve the spirual needs of gay people and others who were margalized — died on Tuday Los Angel.
Bean, who was openly gay om a young age, was a sger before he was a preacher and received the tle archbishop, rerdg gospel songs for ABC Rerds the mid-1970s as the ontman for the group Carl Bean and Universal Love. The chos went: “Oh y I’m happy, I’m reee and I’m gay, y I’m gay./’Ta’t a flt, ’tis a fact, I was born this way.”Motown approached Mr. They me to me wh a song I have been lookg for my whole life.”The Bean versn, wh a more pronounced dis flair and a streamled chos (“I’m happy, I’m reee and I’m gay; I was born this way”), beme a favore gay clubs all over the untry and abroad.
Bean had nsired the mistry before, but the song helped him foc that llg.“I suppose this song and s msage is a sort of mistry to gay people,” he said the 1978 terview.
2ND OPENLY GAY BLACK SGER ON MOTOWN RERDS CARL BEAN HAS DIED, WHO WAS THE FIRST?
“I am g my voice to tell gay people that they n still feel good about beg gay even if there are people like Ana Bryant around” — a reference to one of the most proment opponents of gay rights the 1970s.ImageCred...via Uny Fellowship Church MovementHe always praised Motown for backg the rerd, but, he said a 2009 terview wh the webse Out Alliance, he and the pany parted ways “when they wanted me to do songs like ‘Ooh girl I love you so’ — right after they promoted me as openly gay.”So he turned away om a mic reer and toward the mistry.
He was ordaed 1982 by Archbishop William Morris O’Neal of the Universal Tabernacl of Christ Church and began workg Los Angel, wh a particular tert reachg out to gay Black people and other groups who had felt unwele mastream Christiany. “We put people of lor on the brochure so people uldn’t say, ‘This don’t affect me.’”The effort also sought to overe cultural taboos mory muni.“AIDS took the cloak off for the world that homosexualy exists, pecially for mori,” he told The Los Angel Tim 1989.