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The nephew of a Missouri congresswoman who sobbed as she pleaded with her colleagues to vote against gay marriage has condemned her aunt for bigotry, saying: “I don’t want my last name associated with hate.”
Vicky Hartzler, a Republican, wept on Capitol Hill Thursday as she spoke against the gay marriage bill that finally passed the House.
The 62-year-old was sobbing and her voice trembled as she told the House: “I hope and pray that my colleagues find the courage to join me in opposing this misguided and dangerous bill.”
On Friday, Hartzler’s nephew, Andrew Hartzler, said she was wrong and that she would have to learn to tolerate and accept.
He spoke to her in February, despite her long history of rejecting LGBTQ rights and her decision in 2019 to sponsor an event hosted by conversion therapy advocates.
Andrew Hartzler, 23, filmed a TikTok on Friday that went viral with 154,000 views as of Friday night, noting: “So even though I told my aunt last February, I guess it’s still so homophobic”.
Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler broke down and cried on the House floor Thursday in opposition to the gay marriage bill the House passed.
Andrew Hartzler posted a TikTok criticizing his aunt on Friday that has gone viral, with 154,000 views.
He said BuzzFeed News he was not surprised by his performance on Thursday.
“At first I thought it was an old video because that kind of rhetoric is pretty common with my aunt,” she said.
“But I could tell it was from today and what she was talking about, and yeah, I wasn’t too surprised.”
He said he thought it was “weird” that she was crying, but he was sure her emotion was real.
‘I don’t think that was an act. Knowing my aunt, I think they were real tears.
He said he is not close with his aunt, who invited him to Thanksgiving at her house, but whose invitation he declined, not feeling welcome.
She also has a difficult relationship with her deeply conservative parents, but felt she needed to respond to her aunt’s rhetoric.
“I feel compelled to speak up when I see this just to counter these messages,” he said.
‘I don’t want my last name to be associated with hate. I want it to be associated with love.
Andrew Hartzler said he didn’t want his last name to be ‘associated with hate’
Andrew has been in the spotlight before, after he sued evangelical Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a college he didn’t pick but the only one his father said would pay his tuition.
Like all students, Hartzler had signed a pledge upon arrival stating, ‘I will not engage in or attempt to engage in any unbiblical and illicit sexual acts, including any homosexual activity and sexual intercourse with anyone other than my spouse. I will not be united in marriage other than marriage between a man and a woman.’
The university’s chancellor, William Wilson, preached during one of the mandatory twice-weekly sermons that “if a man has intercourse with a man as one has intercourse with a woman, both have done what is detestable, they are exposed to dead.’
Wilson asked the assembled students to close their eyes, bow their heads, and raise their hands if they needed “healing in this area of sexuality.”
It is now part of a federal class action lawsuit in which the plaintiffs are suing the Department of Education to block religious schools from receiving federal funding if they discriminate against LGBTQ students. Under current law, such schools receive religious exemptions from compliance with Title IX anti-discrimination laws.
On his TikTok on Friday, Andrew Hartzler said his aunt was wrong to argue that religious rights were restricted by gay marriage.
Hartzler is part of a class action lawsuit suing his university for discrimination, arguing that they should not receive federal funding.
Andrew Hartzler said that his aunt needed to respect other people’s ways of life.
“It’s more like you want the power to impose your religious beliefs on everyone else, and because you don’t have that power, you feel like you’re being silenced,” he said on TikTok.
‘But you’re not. You’re going to have to learn to coexist with all of us. And I’m sure it’s not that hard.
She said she hopes her words here and on her TikTok make her aunt take notice of the impact of her rhetoric.
“I really wish she would see how damaging her words are and not use her political power to continue to instill religious exemptions into civil rights laws and allow schools to actively discriminate against LGBTQ people,” he said.
“I think she’s trying to play the victim when in fact she’s the perpetrator of a lot of damage, and I feel like she has to take responsibility.”
Vicky Hartzler, an evangelical Christian, ran for the Missouri Senate seat this year, but lost the Republican primary to Eric Schmitt.
Former President Trump refused to endorse her run, writing on Truth Social: “I don’t think I have what it takes to take on the radical left-wing Democrats.”
Her aunt told the House on Thursday: “This is yet another step toward the Democrats’ goal of dismantling the traditional family, silencing voices of faith, and permanently undoing the God-woven foundation of our country.”
“This is yet another step toward the Democrats’ goal of dismantling the traditional family, silencing voices of faith, and permanently undoing the God-woven foundation of our country,” the Missouri Republican said as her voice trembled.
Nancy Pelosi celebrates passage of the bill with Chuck Schumer and bipartisan members of Congress
Pelosi choked earlier when announcing the bill’s passage.
‘This is the priority of the Democrats.
‘Well, Mr. President, I’ll tell you my priority: protect religious freedom, protect people of faith, and protect Americans who believe in the true meaning of marriage.
“I hope and pray that my colleagues find the courage to join me in opposing this misguided and dangerous bill.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wept for the opposite reason after the bill passed, wiping away tears as she celebrated the passage of the bill, one of the last bills to pass under her leadership.
He had drowned before, when he announced the passage of the bill.
“I was excited, I’m sorry,” she said after banging her mallet on the desk several times.
Thirty-nine Republicans joined all Democrats in voting ‘yes’ on the bill, sending it to President Biden’s desk by a vote of 258-169.
Another Republican voted ‘present’ and four did not vote.
Last week, 12 Republicans joined all Democrats in voting for the legislation in the Senate, breaking a 60-vote filibuster.
The Respect for Marriage Act requires states to recognize any marriage that took place in another state and formally repeals the ‘Defense of Marriage Act’ which stated that marriage was between a man and a woman.
The right to same-sex marriage has been legal in all 50 states since the 2012 Obergefell v. Hodges. The bill, however, does not codify Obergefell, which means that if the Supreme Court were to strike down that ruling states could ban gay marriage but would have to recognize same-sex married couples if the ceremony takes place elsewhere condition.
The bill arose in light of the Dobbs decision, when Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that other substantive views of due process, such as gay marriage or the right to contraception, could be reconsidered.
Last month, a bipartisan group of senators added a religious liberty amendment to the bill that stipulates that religious nonprofit organizations would not have to provide goods or services for the performance of a marriage and would not affect their position on marriage. no federal benefits or tax breaks.