A gay activist has posted a video showing the so-called “exorcist” his parents hired to try and turn him straight when he was a teenager.
Andrew Hartzler, 25, says he came out to his parents when he was 14. The Kansas City family were members of an evangelical Christian sect called the International House of Prayer.
Hartzler says not only did his folks send him to conversion camp, but they also booked an exorcist to clear the demons from his room that were leading him down the wrong path.
In the footage, which Hartzler caught on a hidden camera, the so-called exorcist wanders around the room. He carried a Bible in hand and orders the demons to be gone. He lingers specifically in Hartzler’s closet.
“Devil go in Jesus’ name. You foul spirit, you leave in Jesus’ name. Every evil spirit go now in Jesus’ name. And I pray the conviction of the Lord upon this room,” he can be heard saying.
“Devil you have no more place, you can never enter this room again. I plead the blood of Christ over this closet, over every piece of clothing in here.”
@andrewhartzler hi um ya obvi i was in the closet sir #comingout #college #exorcist ♬ original sound – andrew hartzler
The video has received over 870,000 views and prompted a flood of supportive comments.
Conversion camp
Hartzler told Insider that attending conversion camp after coming out was a traumatic experience.
“It was like some of the darkest moments of my entire life. It basically just teaches you, like, learned self-hate, like learning to repress like half of your mind. It’s exhausting.”
After the camp, Hartzler saw a conversion counselor three times a week for the rest of his high school. He was then sent to the conservative Christian Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His parents thought their son would be removed from other gay people there, but Hartzler says this was not the case.
“There were a lot of kids with similar situations as mine.”
During his sophomore year, he again told his parents about his sexuality. He told them he was not turning straight. It did not go down well.
Hartlzer returned to university but left a hidden camera in his room as he worried about his parents going through his stuff. That’s when he caught the “exorcism”.
“My father thought my identity issues were a ‘demonic stronghold,’” he said. “He always used that type of language around my sexuality.”
Taking aim at his lawmaker aunt
Hartzler now works for the LGBTQ rights group, Oklahomans for Equality. He no longer speaks to his parents. He says he was posting the video now as it’s, “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.”
Hartzler made headlines last December. He’s the nephew of Missouri Rep. Vicky Hartzle. The Republican lawmaker gave a tearful speech in the state House in which she spoke out against the Respect for Marriage Act.
Hartzler called his aunt out for her tear-drenched hate.
@andrewhartzler my aunt cried today #vickyhartzler #lgbtq #respectformarriage #religousexemption #congress #gay #missouri ♬ original sound – andrew hartzler