Elon Musk condemned the words “cis” and “cisgender” as “slurs” on Twitter after a user complained about receiving harassing messages from “trans activists” calling him “cissy.”
“The words ‘cis’ or ‘cisgender’ are considered slurs on this platform,” Musk tweeted on Wednesday, June 21.
“Repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions.”
The censure was in response to a tweet by conservative commentator James Esses.
“Yesterday, after posting a Tweet saying that I reject the word ‘cis’ and don’t wish to be called it, I receive a slew of messages from trans activists calling me ‘cissy’ and telling me that I am ‘cis’ ‘whether or not I like it,’” Esses tweeted.
“Cisgender” is a term that describes a person who identifies with the sex he or she was assigned at birth.
A user pointed out the term’s origin — from German sexologist Volkmar Sigusch, who coined the word in 1991 in a book about transgenders and penned: “If there are transsexuals, logically there must be cissexuals. One is not to be thought without the other at all. I have allowed myself to introduce the terms cissexualism, cissexuals, cisgender….”
Musk tweeted in response: “Yup, the contemptible creep that manufactured the term ‘cis’ has serious problems. Ignore him.”
Another user asked: “If that’s a slur why don’t you ban the use of the N-word on here and make it fair for everyone and just eliminate all slurs?”
Musk didn’t respond to that.
Musk has been criticized in the past for allegedly suppressing the visibility of tweets and direct messages containing words like “trans,” “transgender,” or “intersex.”
Twitter has been slammed for its lack of censorship since Musk bought the platform for $44 billion in October.
