this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2025
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When I (23M) was growing up, my parents hated whenever I locked my door for privacy. Like most adolescent boys, I had a libido and things that I liked to look at when I was taking care of that.

When I was 15, my dad would lean against my door every day to listen in. One day, he heard I was in the middle of it, and as quickly as possible, he picked the lock of my door and caught a glimpse of me watching some pretty crude and wacky rule 34 that was sorta ambiguously gendered. He immediately closed the door and retreated to his room. When I cleaned up and asked why he "knocked," he said "nothing" with an unsettling smile.

7 years later, when I came out as passionately heterosexual because I finally figured out what my type was, he became very angry and told me I was REALLY a [f-slur], and he could prove it by revealing what he caught me watching all those years ago. I actually thought he would be glad to know how I turned out, but it seems that he, a conservative, was angry that I wasn't queer.

Recently, my older brother got into my journal with all of my private thoughts. The first thing he read was the dozens of pages of sexual fantasies I wrote down for my sole enjoyment and reference. When I confronted him, he justified his intrusion into my most intimate thoughts with "God told me to do it." He nitpicked my fantasies and told me that my openness to choosing my gender and sexual expression instead of forcing myself into the cishet box would inexplicably turn me into a pedophile. It seems that 5,000+ unfiltered words exhaustively proving my heterosexual attraction for strong mature women and wholesome consensual lovemaking style were not satisfactory. Not that any of it was ever his business.

I'm curious if others have have experienced this dynamic of family members violating someone to "test" their sexuality and look for evidence of deviance, or if this is a complete "WTF" situation that isn't even a thing among most conservative households.

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[–] mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 2 days ago

Complete WTF situation. If you become a serial killer, bring this up in court for reduced sentencing.

[–] zaki_ft@lemmings.world 8 points 2 days ago

Sorry you had to live with that.

We don't get to choose our family.

[–] Donebrach@lemmy.world 27 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Sounds like both your dad and brother are gay and also extremely abusive. Fun fact, just because someone is a blood relative doesn’t mean they have a free pass to be in your life.

[–] Dragonstaff@leminal.space 3 points 2 days ago

Fun fact: not every homophobe is secretly gay.

[–] Greg@lemmy.ca 182 points 4 days ago

That's not normal. I'm sorry you had to go through that mate.

[–] tgirlschierke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 77 points 4 days ago

you grew up in hell

[–] 6nk06@sh.itjust.works 90 points 4 days ago

my dad would lean against my door

Creepy, not normal at all.

he picked the lock of my door

He's fucked up in the head. No one does this.

he said “nothing” with an unsettling smile

He's a pervert. You're not.

he could prove it by revealing

He's a psycho, no one does this. Ever.

my older brother got into my journal

Another psycho.

“God told me to do it.”

Yep, psycho.

I'm sorry you had to live through this but it's not a normal behavior. I wish you the best for the future without them though because I know that it can destroy someone.

[–] dumbass@piefed.social 48 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You have a fucked up family full of fucked up people doing fucked up things and pretend fucking god told them to do the fucked up things.

Man, my heart goes out to you, you got some weird family members.

Me personally, I would write them off untill they can treat me with the respect I deserve.

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[–] odd@scribe.disroot.org 94 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I grew up hardcore conservative, southern baptist, very anti non-straight etc etc.

What you just described would appall my bible thumbing parents.

My folks found me looking at "objectionable" porn too. They didn't get weird about it. The old man just talked with me about sexuality and privacy and of course God as well.

My upbringing sucked. And I have a lot of issues with my folks. But what you're describing went beyond even what I went through, and I thought my folks were fully crazy.

Good luck fam. You'll be alright.

They used their religion to justify callous behavior and invasions of privacy.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 4 days ago

My folks found me looking at “objectionable” porn too. They didn’t get weird about it. The old man just talked with me about sexuality and privacy and of course God as well.

See, religious disagreements aside that sounds like a completely healthy approach. I'm guessing that's better than most parents manage, regardless of beliefs.

[–] Horsey@lemmy.world 30 points 4 days ago

Hi! This was very similar to my situation! Yeah, it took me until my 30s to understand what happened and think of it as abuse. You survived abuse.

[–] Aneb@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

Not to add to this but my dad recorded my screen and got to see what I was searching for. I was gay but it doesn't give your parent any rights to your privacy. He used my porn habit as a way to ground me and forced me to go to Sex Addicts Anonymous before I graduated high school and went to college

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 34 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

That sounds typical for conservative Christian households, but is deeply unhealthy. It’s a huge violation of both trust and privacy, and also extremely, overtly bigoted. So, common? Yes. Normal? No. Healthy? Absolutely not.

(It’s probably not a majority of conservative Christian households that do this, but it’s not seen as bad in that community, and is therefore relatively common compared to the overall population. It’s also not unique to Christians. Many fundamentalist religions exhibit this sort of strict, spying-enforced behavioral control.)

Wicked people do wicked things. Good people do good things. But for a good person to do wicked things, that takes religion. (Paraphrased from Steven Weinberg.)

[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 4 days ago

For an American Christians™️ this is disturbingly common.

This is toxic as hell.

I suggest therapy to deal with your family. It sounds over compensating to prove yourself to them, a form of people pleasing that often comes from abused childhood.

It's likely there is so much more abuse in your childhood that went down but you do not have the perspective on to see how terrible it was.

[–] kelpie_returns@lemmy.world 49 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Your parents sound nuts. Sorry you had love with that, dude. I had some different but not all that different stuff as a kid, and therapy has been a really useful tool for unpacking those experiences and turning them into something a bit more useful. Would highly recommend it if you haven't tried yet. Shit so cash

[–] sprigatito_bread@lemmy.world 23 points 4 days ago (8 children)

What has therapy been like for you? I've never done therapy before, and I'm kind of worried they'll try to criticize and gaslight me into playing nice with people who I'm 90% sure are narcissists or try to get me to ignore the limitations that my health problems give me. (But then again, I can't help but notice that I was socially conditioned to expect shame, punishment, and destructive guidance if I ask for help.)

The thing with therapists is that you need to find one that works for you, but that also takes experience.

But I think that if you avoid Christian counselors, you'll more likey avoid that. My experience with Christian ones is that they tend to be more on the side of making you look the part rather than being your true self, since you know, your true self is despicable in the eyes of God and all.

I think it you can afford it, going over these things with a professional can help you work through things or help you identify how that's affected you in ways you may not have thought.

and remember, you can always change therapists (just avoid changing because they challenge you)

[–] TheRealKuni@piefed.social 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Bruh. Try therapy. Air those very concerns if you’re worried about them.

The way I like to think about therapy is you’re paying for access to a second brain, a well-trained one, to help you think through stuff. A good therapist guides you instead of leading you.

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[–] Overspark@piefed.social 48 points 4 days ago

Sounds pretty fucked up to me. Normal people will just accept you for who you are, whatever that is. Well, unless you're a serial killer or something, but as long as we're talking about consensual sexual preferences they should stay well out of your stuff.

[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 34 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

yea sorry about your hell

[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 18 points 4 days ago

It's not common at all. What the fuck, dude

[–] kinther@lemmy.world 27 points 4 days ago

No, this is not normal. Or at least my upbringing was nothing like this. I grew up catholic (until 12) and my extended family is fairly conservative. While I did fall into the cishet paradigm, no one was spying on me and looking for evidence I wasn't.

Is there anything you didnt share that would explain further why they did what they did? Can you think of any reason they would suspect you?

[–] SARGE@startrek.website 33 points 4 days ago (3 children)

"God told me to do it."

The first time I heard that as a teenager, I made sure nobody ever felt comfortable saying it around me again.

Some mild stripping, knocked over glassware, and "speaking in tongues" later, sorry god made me do it.

[–] mushroommunk@lemmy.today 14 points 4 days ago

My brother tried your approach, he got an exorcism as Satan was tempting him, lol.

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[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 25 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

Even in conservative households, that's weird. If your dad had blown up right there about the sinful things happining in the room, I'd get it more. What he actually did was inexplicable. And the older brother thing is just awful.

Since it was two incidents total, I won't go straight for hell, though. Like maybe it was but I'd need more information.

[–] LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works 13 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

Absolutely. This is not just some bible-thumping "you will burn for your sins if you don't repent" stuff, otherwise the logical reaction would have been to have a serious conversation on the spot. I would have kind of understood that reaction, from a certain frame of reference, although I of course think it is wrong. But this is someone collecting blackmail material in his own imaginary world where things are what the voices tell them they are.

Run, don't walk. Seriously.

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[–] EponymousBosh@awful.systems 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

The odds of these two deeply weird incidents being isolated in a case like this is about 1%

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[–] morphballganon@mtgzone.com 17 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Still there? Find a chair or board you can use to prop under your doorknob so it's unopenable even if it gets unlocked from outside.

Diaries aren't safe, ever. It sucks but it's true.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 14 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Use codes.

Or go digital. (Standard Notes for example)

I seriously doubt a bunch of hillbillies parents/siblings can decipher even a basic homemade code.

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[–] circledot@feddit.org 27 points 4 days ago
[–] serpineslair@lemmy.world 25 points 4 days ago

That sounds pretty fucked tbh.

[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago

That's insane person behavior

Those people are bad

[–] RagnarokOnline@programming.dev 24 points 4 days ago

That’s not normal behavior for family members

[–] higgsboson@piefed.social 20 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I dont need to read much past the title. Anyone who uses the term "degeneracy" unironically in trying to control the private lives of others is probably a shitbag and they definitely should be told to fuck off.

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[–] Hobo@lemmy.world 18 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

By just reading the title I can say that you grew up in hell. Now let me read your description to see if it was normal hell or super hell.

Edit: So it looks like you grew up in normal hell. Which doesn't diminish the impact it has on you. I personally grew up in normal hell but had friends that grew up in super hell.

There's probably a lot you have yet to process. I still randomly have shit come up two and half decades later and realize how abnormal it was. Also fuck your dad and your brother. Both them are assholes that are probably repressed dipshits. I hope you can get past it and not let it fuck with your life too much.

[–] Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 21 points 4 days ago

That's incredibly controlling behavior from them. The privacy violations are egregious.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 19 points 4 days ago

That's not normal. You were the victim of abuse.

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 16 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It kinda sounds like you're doing your best to just live your life and that's what they are so intrusive over. Sounds more like they want you to force yourself to suffer for religion as they have and it pisses them off that you're doing you (figuratively and literally). I'd guess they are very sexually repressed.

[–] sprigatito_bread@lemmy.world 16 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I’d guess they are very sexually repressed.

My dad DOES have a tendency to make an unusual amount of phallic jokes, to the point where one day I responded with "You know, it's okay to be bi, you can just say it" and boy he did NOT like that

[–] gsuwosl@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 3 days ago

My Mother really disliked that I always closed the door to my room and wanted it wide open. We also had the bathroom door always open, so we could use the toilet while one was showering in the shower with glassdoors.

[–] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Brother Is just a bully so thats simple. But i wonder why dad was upset op isint gay. I can think of a few reasons and none are good.

In cases like these is always better to want to distance from family. Also 200% prep any woman to before meeting family. I read enough stories that if they hold any animosity they may try bring up anything prove they are right and justify hate.

[–] sprigatito_bread@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

But i wonder why dad was upset op isint gay.

Every day, my dad liked to call me the f-slur and threaten to kill me or kick me out of the house "if he found out" I was gay. Apparently, I wasn't in on the joke: in his head, he ALREADY KNEW I was gay, and so his words weren't meant to prevent me from being gay, but rather to make me terrified of him.

It seems like he was angry because he lost a critical control mechanism over me and desperately sought to bring it back. I will never forget how shocked he looked when he saw me actually happy for the first time in years and I playfully deflected his insults instead of engaging with them. He sort of shut down and became depressed for a couple days before he came up with a new way to control me.

It seems that there is nothing that he and my brother hate more than my genuine happiness. Since they believe that they define who I am, how I feel, and what I am capable of, any feelings I am "not supposed" to feel will be violently crushed by them.

I am not supposed to feel happy.

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[–] CannonFodder@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Your brother is likely a pedo. God here - I instruct you to report him and get the police to search his computer

[–] sprigatito_bread@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago
  • Fetishizes female submission and powerlessness
  • Shows interest in "petite" women almost 2 feet shorter than him
  • Values women for how "pretty" they look
  • Says the Epstein situation "doesn't matter"
  • Likes to sneak into other people's private spaces without consent

I gotta hand it to you God, I think you might be onto something

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