When Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) went viral earlier this week for her tearful floor speech opposing the Respect for Marriage Act, her nephew Andrew Hartzler went viral with a video of his own, calling out his aunt. He told CNN on Sunday that he struggled growing up, including being “subjected to conversion therapy practices” while in college, because of “homophobic policies” that she had helped put into place.
The Respect for Marriage Act passed the Senate in November, with 12 Republicans joining their Democratic colleagues to vote in favor of the bill. The legislation repeals the remaining parts of 1996’s Defense of Marriage Act, which was partially struck down by several U.S. Supreme Court cases. Supporters of same-sex marriage rights were alarmed by Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in which he postulated that cases recognizing a right to contraception and same-sex marriage could be overturned under the same legal theory the court had deployed to overturn the abortion rights from Roe v. Wade.
On Thursday as the bill was up for debate in the House, Rep. Hartzler fought back tears as she accused Democrats of “dismantling the traditional family, silencing voices of faith, and permanently undoing our country’s God-woven foundation,” and urged her fellow House members to vote against “this misguided and this dangerous bill.”
In the end, her tears were for naught: the bill passed 258-169, with 39 House Republicans voting yea.
On Sunday, Andrew Hartzler spoke to CNN Newsroom anchor Pamela Brown, who introduced the segment by playing his Tie Tok video in which he lambasted his aunt for wanting “the power to force your religious beliefs on to everyone else.”
“And because you don’t have that power, you feel like you’re being silenced,” he continued. “But you’re not. You are just going to have to learn to coexist with all of us. And I’m sure it’s not that hard.”
Rep. Hartzler had called the bill “dangerous,” Brown noted, asking Andrew what was his message to her and others who cite religious liberty concerns as their reasons for opposing it.
Andrew recalled the first time he saw someone stand up to his aunt, when he was 13 years old and saw a YouTube video of a University of Missouri student “confronting her on her homophobic policies.”
“The courage that that man had, had lived with me through today,” said Andrew. “I felt that it was needed to counteract her message of hate with a message so that other people who are young seeing this would know that there’s someone out there that counteracts it.”
Andrew was 14 when he came out to his parents, and told Brown that he had known he was gay for years, and had googled LBGTQ and his aunt’s name and seen her frequent comments on the issue. He described being taught that being gay was “demonized” and “horrible” and his family’s reaction had been a message of “love the sinner, hate the sin” and “we love you but we don’t accept you.”
“The harmful policies that she is a proponent of, they have real consequences for young people like me,” he said. “When I was at Oral Roberts University, I was subjected to conversion therapy practices. That was totally legal because of the policies that my aunt has helped put into place.”
Andrew told Brown that his “entire family is very deeply conservative and very Christian,” and felt that his desire to counteract “the negative implications of my aunt’s rhetoric” was more important than worrying about their disapproval.
Brown asked him what his message was for other young people in a family like his, and he replied, “you can’t choose your family, but you can choose how you react to your family and ultimately then you can choose your chosen family.”
“Ultimately, when I saw my aunt’s video, I felt that silence would have been complicit and that silence is equal to death in this situation, because the harm that it projects,” he concluded.
“You did what you felt like was the right thing to do, what you felt compelled to do in your heart,” said Brown. “Andrew Hartzler, we appreciate you coming on and sharing your story. We appreciate it.”
Watch above via CNN.
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