A TikToker recently shared bizarre clips exposing his parents’ attempt to banish what they believed were “demons” responsible for their son’s homosexuality.
Andrew Hartzler, a 25-year-old from Missouri, recently posted a TikTok of footage from cameras he had secretly set up in his home, which captured an exorcism in his bedroom.
The clip depicts Andrew’s parents walking around with a priest, who 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.”
To which Andrew responds, “hi um ya obvi i was in the closet sir”, in the caption of his TikTok.
@andrewhartzler hi um ya obvi i was in the closet sir #comingout #college #exorcist ♬ original sound – andrew hartzler
From conversion camps to exorcisms
In an interview with Insider, Andrew also went into more detail about the background of the clip, saying he wasn’t surprised that his parents had called a priest to rid his room of the “devil.”
“My father thought my identity issues were a ‘demonic stronghold,'” he said. “He always used that type of language around my sexuality.”
He also revealed that his parents efforts at extinguishing his ‘gay demons’ have been occuring since he came out to them at 14, which prompted them to ship him off to an anti-gay conversion camp.
“It was like some of the darkest moments of my entire life,” he also told Insider of the experience. “It basically just teaches you, like, learned self-hate, like learning to repress like half of your mind. It’s exhausting.”
But after years of conversion practices almost three times a week, Andrew “put his foot down”:
“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.”
Why does Andrew share these clips?
Now, years after the exorcism and after also cutting his parents off for choosing religion over their son, Andrew says it’s important for people to see the clips:
“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,” Andrew says.
“They believe being gay is something profoundly evil that has to be performed away by some ritual.”
For more of Andrew’s story, you can also follow him on TikTok here.
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