Terrence Patrick Bean is an American political fundraiser, a civil rights activist, and LGBT rights movement activist. He is known for co-founding several national LGBT rights organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. , he is the CEO and President of Bean Investment Real Estate and resides in Portland, Oregon. Since 2014, Bean had been the subject of sexual assault allegations; all charges were dismissed in January 2022.
Early life
Terry Bean is a fifth-generation Oregonian and was born in Portland, Oregon. He is the son of Ormond and Jean Bean. He graduated from Lake Oswego High School, after which he attended the University of Oregon on the Chick Evans Golf Scholarship graduating with a bachelor's degree in political science.
Bean first became active in politics during college as a member of the anti-Vietnam War movement. In 1971, he began lobbying the Oregon State Legislature and the city council of Eugene, Oregon, and helped work on a gay rights ordinance, which passed in 1977. The ordinance produced an anti-gay backlash and was overturned by voters in a referendum on May 23, 1978. Bean was a leader in the campaign to defeat the referendum and coordinated efforts with Harvey Milk. In 1979, Bean helped to organize the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
Human Rights Campaign
The late 1970s saw a rash of successful anti-gay ballot measures around the country. Realizing that their state-by-state efforts were failing, leaders of the LGBT rights movement decided to focus their efforts on the national level. This led to the founding by Bean and others of the Gay Rights National Lobby (GRNL) and the Human Rights Campaign Fund (HRCF), two groups which later merged to become the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
Bean was the primary fundraiser for GRNL, when it was still a new organization, and created the "GRNL 48", a club of top donors who contributed $1,200 or more per year. In its early history, the group found it difficult to find politicians willing to accept campaign contributions from a gay PAC. The GRNL 48 eventually became the HRC's Federal Club.
Bean has been on the Human Rights Campaign's Board of Directors since 1980. He is also a member of its Foundation Board and its Public Policy Committee. and takes part in deciding the organization's political endorsements.
HRC headquarters building
In 2000, the HRC launched its Capitol Campaign to raise the funds to purchase a suitable headquarters in the nation's capital. Bean was a co-chair of this campaign. In 2002, the HRC acquired a medium-rise office building in Washington, DC, from B'nai B'rith International to use as its national headquarters. Joe Solmonese, the Executive Director of HRC, has said that Terry Bean was instrumental in acquiring the building. Elizabeth Birch, the Executive Director of the organization during the time when the building was purchased, believes that Bean's background in real estate was crucial in the purchase. "All of us had very healthy skepticism. Generally, nonprofits do not buy buildings... But there was only one guy in the crowd who said, 'We have to do this. This is historic...' And it was the guy who knew most about Real Estate and that was Terry."
Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund
In 1991, Terry Bean and Vic Basile, the first executive director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, founded the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a Political Action Committee (PAC) to raise money for gay and lesbian candidates.
Other political and community involvement
In Oregon, Bean co-founded the Right to Privacy PAC with four others in the early 1980s. The Portland-based group was the first statewide gay rights PAC in Oregon.
In 1989, Bean co-founded the Equity Foundation, a Portland-based philanthropic organization that gives grants to LGBT community groups and programs as well as academic scholarships. He is currently a member of the board of advisors, along with Portland Mayor Sam Adams and former Oregon Governor Barbara Roberts.
Ted Kulongoski, then governor of Oregon, declared August 23, 2008 to be "Terry Bean Equality Day" to recognize Bean's gay rights efforts.
In 2018, Bean spearheaded a campaign to rename SW Stark, a prominent street in downtown Portland, Oregon, to SW Harvey Milk Street after LGBTQ activist Harvey Milk. On June 14, 2018, Portland City Council voted unanimously in support of the change.
Fundraising
Terry Bean's political involvement is often behind the scenes as a fundraiser, which has assisted in the initial success of several organizations, including the Gay Rights National Lobby and the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.