Category: Trans

Tucker Lieberman seated in a wine-colored armchair, wearing a similarly colored T-shirt. He's in his 40s, white, blue-eyed, balding and bearded. He has a quizzical expression.

Am I the right kind of gay and trans for you?

Why our identities matter so much to us, why we bring them up, and why we use our favorite labels. My identity isn’t a bargaining chip. It’s an intangible. Try to touch it. It’ll vanish. The label denotes the space through which breath and fire passes.

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wildflowers silhouetted in sunlight in a field

The freedom to be left alone

We should have the choice, but we don’t always have it. In the past, when prompted to think about whether I’m ‘out’ or ‘queer,’ I’ve thought about the transgressive sense and about the meaning of visibility.

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three women walk hand-in-hand down a path by a meadow

When labels don’t feel right

She had two moms, and she didn’t like the word ‘straight’. If we have a stake in a shared outcome, we might avoid declaring how we’re different and separate from others, especially to imply our superiority.

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two silhouettes shaking hands by the water's edge

‘Cis’ or ‘biological’?

They’re both adjectives, but we have preferences. No, ‘cis’ doesn’t imply that trans people are better. ‘Cis’ implies that trans people are equal. People who object to this equalization are transphobes.

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