The increasingly discriminatory X (Twitter) now considers the term “cisgender” a slur. Owner Elon Musk posted last June, to the delight of his bigoted brigade of blue-check sycophants, that “‘cis’ or ‘cisgender’ are considered slurs on this platform.” On Tuesday, X made good on the regressive provocateur’s stance and reportedly began posting an official warning that the LGBTQ-inclusive terms could result in a ban from the platform. Not that you’d miss much.
TechCrunch reported on Tuesday that trying to publish a post using the terms “cisgender” or “cis” in the X mobile app will pop up a full-screen warning reading, “This post contains language that may be considered a slur by X and could be used in a harmful manner in violation of our rules.” It then gives you the choice of continuing to publish the post or conforming to the backward views of the worst of us and deleting it.
Of course, neither form of the term cisgender is a slur.
As the historically marginalized transgender community finally began finding at least a sliver of widespread and long overdue social acceptance in the 21st century, the term became more commonly used in the mainstream lexicon to describe people whose gender identity matches their sex at birth. Organizations including the American Psychological Association, World Health Organization, American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association recognize the term.
But some people have a hard time accepting and respecting that some humans are different from others. Those fantasizing (against all evidence and scientific consensus) that the heteronormative ideals they grew up with are absolute gospel sometimes take great offense at being asked to adjust their vocabulary to communicate respect for a community that has spent centuries forced to live in the shadows or risk their safety due to the widespread pathologization of their identities.
Musk seems to consider those the good ol’ days.
This isn’t the billionaire’s first ride on the Transphobe Train. After his backward tweet last June (on the first day of Pride Month, no less), the edgelord’s platform ran a timeline takeover ad from a right-wing nonprofit, plugging a transphobic propaganda film. In case you’re wondering if the group may have anything of value to say, TechCrunch notes that the same organization also doubts climate change and downplays the dehumanizing atrocities of slavery.
X also reversed course on a policy, implemented long before Musk’s takeover, that banned the deadnaming or misgendering of transgender people.