"Don't call me 'cisgender'!"

[Revenant_Threshold]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

But my point is, using “non-transgender” sidesteps that: you say that there’s passion and anger in this thread, and that some folks find the word ‘cisgender’ to be hurtful, and that other folks figure those claims are spurious, and that there’s a long debate with analogies about other words of arguable offensiveness – and that all vanishes like ice cream in the sun if “transgender and non-transgender” is, uh, the default.

I follow your logic here, but there is a problem with it; I’ve seen people who aren’t happy with “non-transgender”, usually because they’re being defined as something they’re not (and some who just don’t care to be associated at all with the concept).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to use non-transgender to describe those who prefer the term (if I remember). But it’s sadly not as simple as there being one word which is disliked.

[iiandyiiii]

@magellan01

I have no idea what point you are trying to make. If one talks about the people of the city, or the women of the city, the statement is including all “people” and all “women”.

Similarly if one talks about the males of the city, or females of the city – all people who identify as male or female.

[puzzlegal]

@MaxTheVool

…If you had started a thread saying “I think ‘non-transgender’ is a better term than ‘cisgender’, I hope it catches on, hear are my reasons…” I don’t know how emotional or committed any disagreement would be…

If that had been the OP, I might not have bothered to read it. And if I did, my response would have been “I prefer ‘cis’, but I’m sure I will end up using whatever term catches on.”

(I don’t like the singular “they”, but I believe it will win out, and I will eventually get used to it. I’m not going to argue passionately on either side of that one, just say that it sounds awkward to me, and I find it very hard to use, due to my background.)

I don’t actually think all the bitterness is over the word, though. I think some of it is over the concept.

[Una_Persson]

My personal conclusions from this lengthy thread, as well as my also lengthy personal experience with this issue, is:

1. People who personally object to “cisgender” being used to describe them should absolutely and without question have their wishes respected.

2. People who object to the **general **use of “cisgender”, when not coupled with other pejorative words or used directly in a pejorative context, have not made their case by a long shot.

3. This was a somewhat silly thread, given the real issues of cisgender and transgender, such as North Carolina’s discriminatory new law, and several other states considering laws which would make it actually illegal for me to the proper bathroom, encourage employers to fire transgender people with impunity, and lead to harassment, assaults, and even worse for transgender people.

4. And no, I sincerely doubt the angst of cisgender people over being called “cisgender” is in any way, shape, or form responsible for any anti-transgender backlash. Did we not in this very thread see those who claimed they were offended by “cisgender” also claim that they had nothing against all us transpeople? True, it’s a small sample (and not “many, many”), but there it is.

Plus, we were being discriminated against, thrown out of churches, fired, harassed, beaten, raped, and murdered for long before there was any public discussion of the word “cisgender.”