A complaint on Twitter about a word has led to Elon Musk declaring it a "slur." The word is "cisgender" (or "cis," for short), which per Merriam-Webster, signifies "a person whose gender identity corresponds with the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth." In other words, if you were born female and still identify as such, you're cis. As Gizmodo puts it, the word "is not considered a slur," but simply a fact based on how people identify, but the Twitter CEO made it clear Wednesday that's not how he sees it.
The focus on "cisgender" came about after James Esses, a former criminal attorney now known as a "social commentator" who discusses gender ideology (Gizmodo also deems him an "avowed transphobe"), posted that he'd put up a tweet "saying that I reject the word 'cis' and don't wish to be called it." He noted that after that tweet, he received "a slew of messages from trans activists calling me 'cissy' and telling me that I am 'cis' 'whether or not I like it.'" Esses then added: "Just imagine if the roles were reversed." That's when Musk directly responded, writing, "The words 'cis' or 'cisgender' are considered slurs on this platform."
Musk added that "repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions." LGBTQ+ advocates immediately pushed back, pointing out that harassment against transgender Twitter users—including by people who "deadname" or otherwise purposely misgender them—is no longer against Twitter's rules (Musk himself has said as much). Others noted Musk's new rule on "cisgender" appears to go against his "free speech" mantra, with one asking if Musk planned on publishing a list of other slurs prohibited by Twitter. Another user asked ChatGPT if "cisgender" is considered a slur (the AI bot sided against Musk).
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Even the researcher who coined the term "cisgender" weighed in. "Cisgender identity is a valid construct," Dana Defosse tells HuffPost, accusing Musk of a "ghastly history of attacking trans people." Quartz points out one fact that may be why Musk is so sensitive about the topic: He has an estranged adult daughter who's transgender. In the petition to change her name, Musk's daughter wrote, "I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape, or form." Musk's response in an interview with the Financial Times was to blame "communism" finding its way into her schooling. "It [the relationship] may change, but I have very good relationships with all the others [children]," he shrugged. "Can't win them all." (More Elon Musk stories.)
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