BOYSTOWN — The tallest participant in the 2015 Pride Parade was a 15-foot-tall inflatable Jesus decked out in a rainbow sash.
It was delivered to Boystown via A Church 4 Me, a Rogers Park branch of the Metropolitan Community Churches. After deciding a Jesus balloon would be an uplifting addition to the Pride Parade, it was left to Chistyl Uhan to find one.
But turns out it's harder to find a jumbo Jesus than you'd think — especially during the off-peak (read: not Christmas) season.
"I did a lot of research to find a big Jesus, and then I just looked around until I found something," Uhan said.
And while people were thrilled to have the inflatable Jesus join the Stanley Cup and Mayor Rahm Emanuel in Sunday's parade, it was his message that really wowed them.
"I think our message is, 'God is a loving god.' It's not about sexuality or race or anything like that, it's about love. And I think we learned this week that love wins," Uhan said.
The church began in 1968 as a sanctuary for LGBT people and now has churches around the world.
"You just gotta do what's on the right side. You can't hate the haters — you just have to keep moving forward with the good stuff," Uhan said.
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