ArcaMax

Dear Curious: I believe you're right.

However, importantly, you and I don't share DNA with your wife or her cousin, and so while we have the right to our opinions, that's about all we have.

DNA testing has exploded in popularity, and questions about the unforeseen personal and relational complications arising from it have flooded my in-box.

We are in fairly uncharted territory. But the truth is the truth, and people deserve to know the truth about themselves.

I have long advocated against holding onto "family secrets," mainly because people who keep secrets are basically deciding for themselves who is deserving of the truth. I realize that people keeping secrets are often well-meaning, as I assume your wife is. But I also believe that most people can handle the truth, even if it is surprising, shocking or painful. (For instance, you and your wife don't really know whether her aunt knew about her uncle's infidelity. The aunt may have kept it secret.)

In this case, your wife has met a person, "Meg," who is so wonderful that they have become close friends. And yet your wife is denying her cousins the opportunity to also know her.

Your wife may be waiting for her aunt to die before disclosing this news to her cousins. The same DNA testing and social media that brought her and Meg together can also eventually lead Meg to her half-siblings. Your wife should consider how her cousins will feel when they learn that she has had a secret relationship with their own sister.

Dear Amy: My wife's sister is getting married in five months.

Both my sister-in-law and her fiance come from cultures that are not accepting of homosexuality.

I've only spent a few weeks total around my sister-in-law's fiancé, but after a few meetings I started getting an impression that he might be attracted much more to men than to women.

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