I Was Born This Way

I Was Born This Way 💖💝, dir. Daniel Junge & Sam Pollard, 2025, USA, 98 min.
Thursday, June 19, 2025, 7:00 pm, KQED Headquarters, 2601 Mariposa St., SF

I Was Born This Way

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you have heard Lady Gaga’s song “Born This Way,” a catchy and uplifting song that, among many other things, was central in the final episode of Andi Mack. But that song didn’t spring from nowhere. Gaga was influenced by a song that was popular in the late 1970s but had largely faded from public awareness. Carl Bean, whose roots were in gospel music, put out “I Was Born This Way,” with the key lyric “I’m happy, I’m carefree, and I’m gay. I was born this way,” way back in 1977.

This documentary traces Bean’s life from early childhood to the 2020s, with the ups and downs of his personal life and his musical career, as well as his work in creating the Minority AIDS Project and the Unity Fellowship Church, emphasizing the importance of working from a place of love and acceptance. In fact, he came into the ministry somewhat by accident. Because of the breadth of Bean’s life work, we hear from people as varied as Lady Gaga, Dionne Warwick, and Rep. Maxine Waters, all hosted by Billy Porter — who finds and rescues the unreleased B-side of “I Was Born This Way.”

The film mirrors Bean’s life, with tremendous joy and moments that will bring tears to your eyes. It is an inspiration on many different levels, and emphatically a MUST SEE.

• IMDb • trailer • official website •