A Republican congresswoman who went viral for her tearful speech against same-sex marriage was shamed afterward by her gay nephew.
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) broke into tears as she urged her House colleagues to vote against protections for same-sex marriage, which eventually passed with Republican support and heads to President Joe Biden's desk for signing.
"This is yet another step toward the Democrats' goal of dismantling the traditional family, silencing voices of faith and permanently undoing our country's God-woven foundation," Hartzler said in the speech.
Her nephew Andrew Hartzler posted a video afterward on TikTok calling her out after she claimed the Obergefell ruling was not in danger but faith institutions were.
"Aunt Vicky that's just not right," he said. "Institutions of faith like religious universities are not being silenced. They're being empowered by the U.S. government to discriminate against tens of thousands of LGBTQ students because of religious exemptions but they still receive federal funding. It's more like you want the power to force your religious beliefs onto everyone else, and because you don't have that power you feel like you're being silenced, but you're not."
Andrew Hartzler, who's a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit seeking to end those exemptions, graduated in 2021 from the deeply conservative Oral Roberts University, where he was nearly expelled for being gay as a junior and said he attempted suicide his sophomore year.
Hartzler graduated a year ago from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He says it was the only college his father would pay for him to attend. In that bastion of evangelical Christianity, being gay was a violation of the school's honor code and could get a student expelled. Hartzler attempted suicide during winter break of his sophomore year and barely escaped expulsion his junior year.
"You're just going to have to learn to coexist with all of us," he said, "and I'm sure it's not that hard."
Watch here:
Vicky Hartzler’s gay nephew Andrew posted about his aunt crying over gay marriage on the House floor pic.twitter.com/Kxwt4DLEnF
— Marjorie Gaylor Queen 🏳️🌈 (@Tim_Tweeted) December 9, 2022
