Introducing the New Editor at Identity Current
Tucker Lieberman is behind the curtain
Amethysta is now elsewhere running Gender Identity Today, and she has kindly introduced me, Tucker Lieberman, as the new editor here at Identity Current. In the 10 weeks since she introduced me, Identity Current received no submissions, which explains why I haven’t published any.
I’ll take this quiet moment to reintroduce myself.
Usually, I avoid describing myself with lists of adjectives. Any label means something different to everyone. Even our own understandings change over time. Commonly, labels incorporate mistaken assumptions of outsiders. No one reduces to our labels. Neither do our identities simply peel off, so the word “label” itself is mislabeled.
Yet I must let you know to whom you’re submitting when you submit to Identity Current, and adjectives are a quick way to do that.
If you meet me in the street, you’ll perceive me as a white man, U.S. English-speaking, abled, in my 40s.
All those perceptions are true. If you get to know me, the picture becomes more detailed: I’m Jewish, in an interracial gay marriage, arthritic, wrote a memoir of a brief mental illness, am 26 years post-gender transition, live in Colombia, and you can speak Spanish in my house and submit stories in Spanish to this publication.
When I talk about identity, I talk about these things.
Other traits and experiences are less obvious, as I’m less likely to talk about them, yet nonetheless they contribute powerfully to who I am.
Some traits and experiences that are important for me don’t even have names. I may not know what they are.
I identify with the principles I hold consciously and steadfastly.
I also identify as a writer. I’ve written five hundred stories on Medium over the past five years.
A current can be fluid or electrical, and there’s more than one way to have an identity. Hence, “The Identity Current” may find more blissful ambiguities as “Identity Current.” Tell me if it doesn’t. I’ve already made the change.
I’ve also changed this publication’s header image to a jelly, the kind that’s alive and floats in the sea. If it stings you, it may feel electric.
Soon, I’ll update the writers’ guidelines for Identity Current.
Thanks for your ebbs, flows, charges, and dynamics.
Tucker Lieberman
Identity Current
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