A group of LGBT-friendly Christians gathered at the Chicago Pride Parade for the fourth consecutive year on July 5th holding placards in an attempt to apologize to members of the queer community. The Marin Foundation founded the I’m Sorry Campaign at the Chicago Pride Parade in 2010 so Christians could apologize to LGBT individuals who have been ostracized by fellow believers. Since then, it has spread to several cities including Atlanta, Los Angeles and Sydney even.

“We view this campaign as our commitment to making the first step towards relational reconciliation in a tangible way,” said the Marin Foundation’s website in explaining the campaign.

The campaign was started in 2010 after a picture of Andrew Marin went viral, being shared more than 34 million times by bloggers across the world. The picture showing Marin embracing a queer parade-goer dressed in nothing but underwear, was posted on his blog post titled I Hugged a Man in His Underwear and I’m Proud, where Marin tells the story of his homophobic days and apologizes then apologizes for it.

“In the midst of our country’s cultural shift – where many, including evangelical Christians, are moving toward a more progressive and, I would contend, Christ-centered understanding in discussions surrounding the intersection of faith, gender, and sexuality — there is a need for some folks to acknowledge the harm done toward the LGBT community in the name of God and religion,” said Marin Foundation executive director Michael Kimpan.

According to the organization, the campaign provides homophobic believers the opportunity to come face to face with LGBT community members and apologize to them for speaking ill of them or treating them in an intolerant manner. Some of those who came to apologize at the event on July 5th were dressed in t-shirts that read ‘I’m sorry’ and others held up placards that sent out strong messages like ‘I used to be a Bible-banging homophobe’ and ‘I’m sorry for how the Church has hurt you.’