26. My grandma was getting death threats from the Taliban
“My gran had to move to England from Pakistan ’cause she kept receiving death threats from the Taliban. ‘Cause apparently being an actress is a sin, and you need to be murdered for it. I’m pretty sure nobody’s supposed to know this besides my parents and her.”
27. My cousin willingly castrated himself
“One of my cousins willingly castrated himself in an effort to hide his transgender urges from his radical Baptist parents. When we were growing up he was the star of the football team, a state wrestling champ, and super popular. He was so good at sports that my aunt and uncle pulled him from private Baptist school and put him in public school. He then went into the army. When he came back home he revealed to me that he had always stolen my thongs and bras when we were young, which I had always blamed on my little brother’s perv best friend. He said he had a gay lover in the army and he was confused about his sexuality. He became extremely depressed and an alcoholic, I couldn’t help him because he wouldn’t let me. Suddenly he was engaged to a girl he went to high school with. I talked to both of them to find out how their relationship was going to work, and make sure she knew the seriousness of what she was getting into. She knew, and supported him. She helped him go shopping for women’s clothing and allowed him to have lovers while maintaining a friendship and a front for his family. They got married, had a little girl and everything seemed fine. He decided to get castrated because he wanted to stop his urges because even with his wife’s and friend’s support, he felt terrible about hiding it from his family. He wanted to be normal. It was a drastic decision, but I supported him in his plight to be happy. Now there’s an even bigger secret. His wife has had a boyfriend, who has gotten her pregnant. My cousin enjoys the humiliation and being emasculated but I don’t think he counted on this happening. A few people in my family know now, and have all kept it from his parents. We have no idea how they’re going to raise this new baby and how open they are with their three year old. I am very afraid that one day their daughter is going to tell his parents about her mom’s boyfriend and think it’s a completely normal thing. Also, if anyone is feeling grated that I used ‘he’ instead of ‘she’, it is because he doesn’t always identify as female. His sexuality is still pretty undefined, or fluid.”
28. My uncle brutally tortured a cousin who raped his sister
“My late uncle tortured and mutilated the adult cousin who repeatedly raped his nine-year-old sister. He purposely kept from killing him, cauterizing his wounds so he wouldn’t bleed out and so the scarring wouldn’t be repairable. He made very sure he’d never be able to rape another child….My uncle passed away a few years later. The cousin underwent a ton of surgeries, but none of them could really fix the scarring or mutilation. Last I heard he was still in hiding overseas. I see his mom from time to time. 40 years later she still blames the victim for her son’s injuries. The victim, btw, grew up to be an advocate for DV and abuse victims.”
29. My uncle was a snitch
“My uncle snitched to on a Youngstown kingpin. My whole family is or has been involved in some sort or criminal enterprise for around 3 generations. Growing up we learned fast to never speak of family matters to strangers and defiantly never to police. Pack in the mid 90s my uncle was driving drugs all over the East Coast and got hit in Virginia with 15 keys of coke. The DEA had tracked him from pick up in Florida to Ohio once and had video of both the pick up and delivery. They offered him 8 years if he gave them the man that wanted and he did it rather than the life sentence he would have had in federal max.”
30. My uncle doesn’t know he was supposed to have been aborted
“My grandmother was going to abort my uncle. When she left that day to get the abortion, my other uncle was hit by a bus. She took that as a sign from God not to have the abortion. To this day my uncle doesn’t know that he was supposed to have been aborted.”