This is appalling.
Anti-Trans
In his latest bigoted tirade, Twitter CEO Elon Musk is again taking cues from transphobes as he insists that the term “cisgender” will now be considered a “slur” on the social network.
Musk’s comments, which may or may not constitute an official Twitter policy, came in response to a user who insisted that he was targeted by transgender activists for his issues with the term “cis,” which refers to someone who identifies with the gender they were assigned at birth.
“Yesterday, after posting a Tweet saying that I reject the word ‘cis’ and don’t wish to be called it, I receive [sic] a slew of messages from trans activists calling me ‘cissy’ and telling me that I am ‘cis’ ‘whether or not I like it,'” the tweet from therapy blogger James Esses reads. “Just imagine if the roles were reversed.”
Although he wasn’t tagged directly, Musk reply-guyed the known transphobe, insisting that “repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions.”
“The words ‘cis’ or ‘cisgender’ are considered slurs on this platform,” he added.
“Serious Problems”
Later, when a purportedly-feminist activist responded by incorrectly citing a controversial German sexologist for coining the term “cisgender” (which was, it should be noted, actually coined by researcher Dana Defosse in 1994), Musk dug his heels in further.
“Yup, the contemptible creep that manufactured the term ‘cis’ has serious problems,” he tweeted. “Ignore him.”
Besides ignoring his own advice, Musk’s latest transphobic Twitter spree is yet another example of his deepening bigotry against transgender people — a curious case given not only that his companies have sponsored LGBTQ Pride events in the past, but also that one of his many children is trans, though she unsurprisingly wants nothing to do with him or his name.
Indeed, he kicked off Pride month this year by saying that he wants to start “actively lobbying to criminalize” sex-reassignment surgeries for children “below the age of consent” — which is not a thing — and sharing a transphobic disinformation video from far-right publication Daily Wire.
Musk also changed Twitter’s policies earlier this year to allow the misgendering of transgender people on the platform, something that could easily lead to bullying.
Of all of Musk’s many horrendous takes, his virulent transphobia is particularly damaging given the very real transphobic legislation being enacted right now, not to mention the violence against the trans community occurring across the world right now.
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