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John Jarboe, the founder and director of the Bearded Ladies Cabaret in Philadelphia, came out as trans a few years ago.
In 2018, she dutifully told her Aunt Margo.
“I said, ‘I’m using she/her pronouns.’ My aunt said, ‘Oh, of course you are,’” Jarboe recalled. “’You know, you had a twin sister in the womb. You ate her. That’s why you are the way you are.’”
Jarboe had no idea she had had a twin in utero, or that she “ate” her sibling. As surprising as that news was, she was also taken aback by her aunt’s choice of words.
“There was a moment where I was almost going to be defensive: ‘Why are you saying that messed up thing?’” she said. “But it was just so bizarre that I couldn’t even respond in that way.”