X owner Elon Musk dipped back into the cisgender engagement pool this week where he shamed users for using the word.
In an apparently unprompted social media post, Mr. Musk went all in on his hatred for the word cisgender.
“Cis is a heterophobic word. Shame on anyone who uses it,” the billionaire wrote.
The post sparked a predictable firestorm in the replies, with many of Mr. Musk’s fans sounding off.
One frequent commenter, X user The Rabbit Hole, agreed with Mr. Musk and posted the results of an X poll where 78% of participants said cis was a slur. Another user replied with a separate poll, which as of Thursday, has 63% of respondents agreeing that cis is a slur.
Journalist Victoria Brownworth responded with the generally accepted definition of cisgender.
“Cis(gender) describes a person whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth,” she wrote. “It is the opposite of trans(gender). It has zero to do with sexual orientation and this is neither ‘heterophobic’ nor homophobic. Please learn how to Google.”
Author Hank Green echoed the sentiment.
“You’ve gotten so lost my dude,” he wrote.
The outburst comes a few months after Mr. Musk declared that cis was considered a slur on X. There have been no recorded instances of users being banned for using the term cis or cisgender on X. Since taking over in late 2022, Mr. Musk has instituted a much more relaxed content moderation policy. According to some studies, this policy has led to a proliferation of hate speech and extreme content on X.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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