Josiah Ryan, a gay former Mormon who dresses up as “Gay Jesus” at the Utah Pride Parade in Salt Lake City, is fundraising for the Conversion Therapy Survivor Network and sharing stories of how his costume has positively impacted people harmed by the Mormon Church’s anti-LGBTQ+ stances.

In a recent TikTok video, Ryan said that he purchased a $20 Jesus costume from the retail website Amazon two years ago and wore it to the Pride parade. “I had no idea the reception that Jesus would have,” he said, noting that, for the next year, he commissioned someone to create “a custom sparkly Gay Jesus” costume that he wore for the entire Pride festival.

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He said he had about “one or two thousand” people take photos with him, usually with his arm around them. “I’ve had multiple people just break down in tears on my shoulder while hugging me, thanking me for cosplaying Jesus,” he added. “It’s the coolest experience.”

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For this year, Ryan said he is upgrading the costume again, this time adding a crown of thorns with dangling rubies. He’ll attend the Pride festival alongside other ex-Mormons to promote the Conversion Therapy Survivor Network, and he’s asking for $5 donations to help purchase the festival booth and create giveaway materials.

“You have to understand just why gay Jesus is so popular at Pride,” he said. “It all has to do with religious trauma. For some reason, being told that you — just by virtue of being you — are inherently broken, evil even, and that the only guy who can save you from yourself lived a couple 1,000 years ago is hurtful… it’s especially true for the LGBTQ+ community.”

“Jesus was always supposed to represent love, right? Isn’t that what Jesus is all about? So to have Jesus show up at this festival, that’s all about celebrating love, celebrating loving them even, that’s healing somehow,” he said.

While the Mormon Church has said that it does not condone or implement conversion therapy — the widely discredited practice of trying to change someone’s LGBTQ+ identity — the church has a long history of demonizing LGBTQ+ people as ungodly, contagious, and harmful to individuals, families, and society. The church used to regularly excommunicate its queer members and actively promoted conversion therapy for decades, often leading LGBTQ+ people to harm themselves or end their own lives.

While the church has since become more supportive of same-sex marriages and transgender people — even allowing same-sex couples to receive callings and take the sacraments and granting permission for trans people to have their name and pronouns to be acknowledged in the official church rolls — church leaders still occasionally make comments against it and queer people because the faith is not a monolith.

“Keep in mind,” Ryan said in his video, “it was not that long ago that [Brigham Young University in nearby Provo, Utah] was doing electroshock therapy under the leadership of Donald H. Oaks, [the 90-year-old Mormon religious leader] who is next in line to become prophet [someone who articulates church orthodoxy].”

“So, if you could help us out, I just be over the moon,” Ryan concludes. As of the time of publication, his GoFundMe had already reached its $5000 goal.