Elon Musk Announces Twitter Now Considers 'Cis' And 'Cisgender' To Be Slurs

In a surprising rebuke to online activists Twitter owner Elon Musk announced Tuesday that the terms “'cis' or 'cisgender' are considered slurs on this platform." He made this announcement in reply to a tweet from Commentator and Co-founder of Thoughtful Therapists, James Esses who pointed to a "slew" of messages he received after posting that he rejects the term 'cis'.

The debacle began when Esses tweeted Monday, "I formally and publicly declare that I reject the label of 'cis'. I don’t believe in gender ideology. I don’t self-identify as 'cis'. Using this term makes me feel unsafe and is demonstrative of your hatred towards me. Anyone who uses the term 'cis' to describe me is a bigot."
 

I formally and publicly declare that I reject the label of “cis”.

I don’t believe in gender ideology. I don’t self-identify as “cis”. Using this term makes me feel unsafe and is demonstrative of your hatred towards me. Anyone who uses the term “cis” to describe me is a bigot.

— James Esses (@JamesEsses) June 19, 2023

Esses posted the following day that his tweet was met with "a slew of messages from trans activists calling me 'cissy' and telling me that I am ‘cis’ 'whether or not I like it'."

He asked, "Just imagine if the roles were reversed."

Musk responded telling Esses, "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," and setting off a firestorm of controversy.
 

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.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 21, 2023

As noted by Libby Emmons writing for The Post Millennial, Dane Defosse claimed in an Op-Ed for HuffPo in February to have coined the phrase 'cisgender' in 1994 with the explanation that it was derived from molecular chemistry. 

Defosse wrote, "The word is a threat because it linguistically separates biological sex from socially constructed categories of 'woman' and 'man.' That gender is a social construction undermines heteronormativity, critical to defending patriarchal sex roles and procreation. It is not surprising that those who have garnered dominance and privilege from traditional gender roles feel threatened and compelled to lash out." This claim is torturous to the English language however and defies logic.

By its basis, Defosse created the term "to be a way to describe people who were not transgender without inescapably couching them in normalcy and making transgender identity automatically the 'other'." In other words, the phrase was from its origin designed to skirt around an otherwise "inescapable" truth: that the binary nature of gender is "normalcy" and that the notion of transgenderism creates an "other." 

The writer's protestations aside, this manufactured term is now factually used on a regular basis by transgender activists to harass, intimidate and marginalize those who reject the notion that gender is malleable or a 'social construct,' using it to silence opposition. Making its application in this way, objectively pejorative. And as Jo Bartosch writing for UnHerd observed, "Having a specific word for the 99.4% of the population who don’t identify as trans is about as logical as inventing a term for people who don’t have webbed toes."

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