A TikToker says his dad and mom employed an 'exorcist' to 'exorcise all of the demons' out of his room that 'they thought had been making me homosexual'

• A TikToker shared that his dad and mom as soon as introduced in an “exorcist” to cleanse his room of demons as a result of he was homosexual.
• Andrew Hartzler stated his father thought he was homosexual due to a “demonic stronghold” on him.
• Hartzler captured the entire thing on hidden cameras. 

A TikToker shared a video of his dad and mom bringing in an “exorcist” to “exorcise the demons” out of his room that they thought had been answerable for making him homosexual. 

Andrew Hartzler, 25, grew up in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, and his household was a part of a conservative evangelical non secular sect known as the Worldwide Home of Prayer. He instructed Insider that when he first got here out to his dad and mom at 14, they despatched him to an anti-gay conversion camp. 

“It was like a number of the darkest moments of my total life,” he stated of the expertise. “It principally simply teaches you, like, discovered self-hate, like studying to repress like half of your thoughts. It is exhausting.”

After camp, Hartzler was despatched to a conversion remedy counselor thrice per week for the remainder of highschool. His dad and mom then enrolled him on the conservative Christian Oral Roberts College in Tulsa, Oklahoma, considering it will be “a spot the place…I would not be round some other homosexual folks.”

After all, although, “There have been loads of children with comparable conditions as mine,” Hartzler stated.

At Christmas break throughout his sophomore 12 months, he as soon as once more got here out to his dad and mom. It did not go nicely. 

“I had had sufficient of mendacity to my dad and mom about being ‘straight.’ And I instructed them that  I used to be mendacity to them the entire time throughout conversion remedy and that I used to be homosexual and there was no altering me. And I actually put my foot down,” he stated.

Sensing that one thing would possibly occur when he returned to highschool, Hartzler instructed Insider he secretly ordered and arrange surveillance cameras whereas he was residence that Christmas. He had been involved that his dad and mom would possibly undergo the issues he had left at residence whereas he wasn’t there, and he needed to observe his stuff whereas he was at college. 

Hartzler stated his dad and mom contacted evangelist John Jacobs to carry out the ceremony. Jacobs was the founding father of The Energy Workforce, a gaggle of bodybuilding Christians that confirmed their perception in Christ by tearing aside telephone books and lifting weights, although he stepped again from the group in 2003. (The Energy Workforce is the inspiration for Adam Devine’s “God Squad” in “The Righteous Gems.”)

Hartzler stated he wasn’t shocked that his dad and mom had known as Jacobs to rid his room of the “satan.”

“My father thought my identification points had been a ‘demonic stronghold,'” he stated. “He all the time used that sort of language round my sexuality.”

As Jacobs walks across the room, he urges: “Satan to go in Jesus’ identify, you foul spirit, you allow. Each evil spirit go now in Jesus’ identify. One thing foul is occurring on this closet in Jesus’ identify. Each evil spirit go now in Jesus’ identify.”

Hartzler now works for Oklahomans for Equality, an LGBTQ rights group. Final December, he made headlines for calling out his aunt, Missouri state rep. Vicki Hartzler, for her anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. 

It has been a number of years for the reason that exorcism. Hartzler stated he determined to put up the video now as a result of “it was actually necessary for folks to see that there are right-wing Christian fanatics who’re subjecting their youngsters to the sort of  observe and that they consider being homosexual is one thing profoundly evil that must be carried out away by some ritual.”

He not speaks to his dad and mom. “Actually, I feel that it took me this lengthy to recover from or to get to a spot of, like, being comfy within the hurt that I used to be subjected to. As a result of it wasn’t till really this previous April that I totally lower myself off from my dad and mom. I instructed them you selected your faith over your son, and also you’re welcome on my journey of life, however you have chosen in any other case, so goodbye.”