Maintaining a Closet Brony Status

First of in case anyone asks if I'm ashamed of loving the fandom I'm not. I just don't have the guts to tell anyone else in my personal life about it which is why any artwork I did on deviant only appear on facebook account if I can give it an alternative name that was believable. Like my Equestria Girls human Steelbolt and Vetrini, when I showed them on facebook I just said that they were me and my sister in a form of drawing art style.

But enough of that the main thing I want to talk about happened on Thanksgiving Sunday last week. In case I have any Americans reading this, I'm Canadian so I celebrate Thanksgiving in October. I was visiting My older cousin with may older brother who held a birthday party for his one year old daughter and one of the gift she got was a completed series of the first gen MLP on DVD. When my brother noticed it there was a bit of the talk between him and my cousin about how uh... ridiculous, may be the best way to describe their overall opinion, was and they were trying to educate my cousin's wife on the subject. All the while they were expressing their negative opinions on the subject I tried to defend without indicating my own interest in the show, like how John de Lancie was in the show cast but that failed as they did not care for Star Trek. Still trying to defend while keeping my personal interest a secret which in the end just resulted me sitting in the group growing nervous in sweat as they drifted more into a bad perceptive because of a quick Google search of bronies and related content which eventual resulted in coming across "furries". In the end it all went down hill as I tried to stay neutral on the matter while they mocked the fanbase.

I guess it's situations like this I use an account name when I display drawings or fanfiction because at least should someone close me sees them, then they wouldn't figure it was me and laugh even though they only mean friendly teasing. I'm not worried about being made fun of, I just prefer not to be caught up in awkward situation.

No for a reader question: If you are a fan but are keeping it secret from your personal life then what would you do in a similar situation?: