[Twin] Greeting or not greeting people I don't actually know

The "obligatory how are you doing" thread got me thinking about a question I've wanted to get opinions on for a long time, but I just kinda kept forgetting about it. It applies to very few people, but what the heck...

The thing is, I have an identical twin. We go to the same university. And so, it will frequently happen that someone my brother knows will smile/wave/say hey at me when I'm walking by them, and I NEVER have figured out what to do about this.

I can either acknowledge them or not acknowledge them, but I've had bad outcomes for both. If I acknowledge them and they realize it's not my brother, the person is usually exceedingly embarrassed. If I don't acknowledge them, the person is usually ticked off that they weren't greeted, until they next run into my brother eventually, and then they think it's funny, mostly.

Oh, and greatly complicating things is the fact that my brother is gay and I'm straight. Just go ahead and try to imagine the potential confusions involved with that little tidbit. What if some guy gives me a flirtatious wink? Obviously that's ridiculously disgusting thing to me, but my brother would probably be ticked at me for making a hot guy think he doesn't like him, just like I'd be ticked if he gave some girl I was interested in the cold shoulder.

Any thoughts?

 

I created the account, but he used to view the forum on this account a lot. And he did post occassionally. He hasn't used it in over a year now, though.

Oh, something interesting to note: I'm a Rockets fan, and he's a JAZZ fan. Guess he's the defective one, being gay and liking the Jazz.

But at least he admits Stockton and Malone were both dirty as hell.

 

Oh yeah... I know this was obviously a joke, but making the whole thing even more confusing is that he's the most un-gay gay guy ever. He can't dance, and he has even less clothing sense than I do. He doesn't have that gay-sounding voice. He can't cook. He can't sing. He doesn't watch musicals or crap like that. He doesn't wear an earring or earrings. He has a technical job. He's as crazy about sports as I am.

There just aren't any consistent indicators.

 

This topic came up in a child development class I was in like a year ago.

You know, the fact is that I myself believed genetics had a much larger influence on it than environment... until my brother came out senior year of high school. I was as surprised as anyone else would be.

Since that revelation, my wonder isn't which has a bigger influence (environment or genetics), but whether genetics has anything to do with it at all. I mean, we're as identical as two people could be. Maybe genetics can give you a predisposition toward it... but heck man, I just don't know.

One interesting thing is I talked to my theology teacher for my high school exit interview, and he was also a priest. He told me that it was actually startlingly common to have one twin be gay/lesbian, and the other not (from the people he'd talked to). Maybe it has something to do with a deep-seated need for individuality/distinctness.

 

Unfortunately, he doesn't do a very good job of making friends with hot women.

 

Yeah, I noticed that too... there IS always an evil twin. And he's it.

I even bought him an "I'm the Evil Twin" t-shirt. He wears it all the time.

I would quickly give the guy a look like my lunch was about to come up, to let him know he had the wrong idea. I never had any doubt that that's what I'd do if I didn't have a gay twin, personally... I thought this was somewhat universal, actually, but maybe I'm wrong...

But like I said, I almost feel like I have an obligation not to do that, given the situation...