Queer Activist Andrew Hartzler Releases Video of 'Exorcism' Sponsored by Parents

Last December, queer activist Andrew Hartzler hilariously took down his aunt, conservative, Missouri U.S. House Rep. Vicky Hartzler, after she wept on the floor of Congress arguing against same-sex marriage. This week he revisits his family with a darker, more personal story.

The TikToker "shared a video of his parents bringing in an 'exorcist' to 'exorcise the demons' out of his room that they thought were responsible for making him gay," writes The Insider.

Hartzler grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and his family was part of a conservative evangelical religious sect called the International House of Prayer.

@andrewhartzler hi um ya obvi i was in the closet sir #comingout #college #exorcist ♬ original sound - andrew hartzler

The tape culminated more than a decade long struggle Hartzler had with his family since he first told them he was gay at 14. At that time, reports the Insider, he was sent to conversion camp.

"It was like some of the darkest moments of my entire life," he said of the experience. "It basically just teaches you, like, learned self-hate, like learning to repress like half of your mind. It's exhausting."

Following camp, Hartzler was sent to a conversion therapy counselor three times a week for the rest of high school. His parents then enrolled him at the conservative Christian Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, thinking it would be "a place where ... I wouldn't be around any other gay people."

They were wrong. Instead Hartzler found others just like himself. "There were a lot of kids with similar situations as mine," Hartzler said.

During his Christmas break during his sophomore year, he once again came out to his parents. It didn't go well.

"I had had enough of lying to my parents about being 'straight.' And I told them that I was lying to them the whole time during conversion therapy and that I was gay and there was no changing me. And I really put my foot down," he said.

He also worried about his personal items in his parents' home and secretly installed surveillance video cameras.

On TikTok he revealed what he found: "In the clip, which has so far been viewed more than 853,000 times, Andrew talks directly to camera as he reveals: 'Here is when my parents hired an exorcist to get all the demons out of my room that they thought were making me gay,'" reports the Daily Mail.

Hartzler then lets the video of the encounter play out as the exorcist wanders around the bedroom and closets with a Bible in hand.

The exorcist, the Insider reveals, was evangelist John Jacobs, the founder of The Power Team, a group of bodybuilding Christians that showed their belief in Christ by tearing apart phone books and lifting weights, though he stepped back from the group in 2003. (The Power Team is the inspiration for Adam Devine's "God Squad" in "The Righteous Gemstones.")

"My father thought my identity issues were a 'demonic stronghold,'" he said. "He always used that type of language around my sexuality."

As Jacobs walks around the room, he urges: "Devil to go in Jesus' name, you foul spirit, you leave. Every evil spirit go now in Jesus' name. Something foul is happening in this closet in Jesus' name. Every evil spirit go now in Jesus' name."

The Daily Mail added: "The exorcist, who is joined by two other adults, then anoints various items in the room with Holy Water as he proclaims: 'We anoint this bed in the name of Jesus that every person that touches this bed shall be saved.'"

"It's been several years since the exorcism. Hartzler said he decided to post the video now because 'it was really important for people to see that there are right-wing Christian fanatics who are subjecting their children to this type of practice and that they believe being gay is something profoundly evil that has to be performed away by some ritual,'" he told the Insider."

He no longer speaks to his parents. "Honestly, I think that it took me this long to get over or to get to a place of, like, being comfortable in the harm that I was subjected to. Because it wasn't until actually this past April that I fully cut myself off from my parents. I told them you chose your religion over your son, and you're welcome on my journey of life, but you've chosen otherwise, so goodbye."