Twitter owner Elon Musk has declared his social media platform will consider ‘cisgender’ to be a slur and those using the word in a harassing manner will face, at a minimum, temporary suspensions from the platform.
“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.” Musk tweeted.
His comment was in response to a post from British man James Esses who posted that he had received a wave of comments telling him he was ‘cis’ or a ‘cissy’. Esses had posted that he rejected the use of the descriptor.
Cisgender is a phrase that describes a person who identifies as the same gender they were assigned at birth, the antonym of transgender. The word takes its prefix from Latin with cis meaning ‘on this side of’. The phrase was first coined in 1994 but has come into more wide-spread use in recent years as discussions about gender have increased.
Esses, a former barrister, first came to prominence in 2021 when he was asked to leave a college where he was studying for a master’s degree in psychotherapy practices. The college said he was no longer a suitable candidate based on comments he’d made on social media.
Esses had posted his views about the treatment of young people experiencing gender dysphoria, arguing that affirming people’s gender may not be the best course of action. He also voiced concern over the UK government’s plans to ban conversion therapy, arguing that some clients may want to see counsellors who could guide them to accept their birth gender.
Around the same time that he was asked to leave his college he was also asked to leave a volunteer role at phone service Childline. Esses has gone on to become a prominent anti-trans campaigner and commentator.
Twitter’s guidelines describe slurs and tropes as language which “intends to degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category”. Musk’s announcement comes just two months after Twitter dropped its policy of protecting transgender people from deadnaming and deliberate misgendering.
As news of the announcement spread around the globe Musk offered some more detail in a follow up posts saying people would only face suspensions if they used the term in a harassing manner.
In recent weeks Musk endorsed What Is a Woman? an anti-transgender film created by conservative commentator Matt Walsh for The Daily Wire. Following his endorsement of the film the head of the company’s Trust and Safety team resigned from her role.
Ella Irwin did not specify why she was leaving the company, but her departure coincided with the promotion of the anti-transgender film. She is the second head of Trust and Safety to depart since Musk bought the company and significantly reduced its content moderation.
Last week US LGBTIQA+ rights organisation GLAAD released its annual Social Media Safety Index labelling Twitter “the most dangerous platform for LGBTQ people” and the only one that saw its scores decline from last year.
“There isn’t a week that goes by that we don’t have a doxxing situation for somebody in our community that we have to come in and help them stop it and stop the hate, stop the vitriol and stop the attacks,” said GLAAD CEO and President Sarah Kate Ellis said. “It’s really been amped up to a level that we’ve never seen before.” Ellis said.
The GLAAD President said people have often been targeted with their personal information being posted online leading to waves of abuse, intimidation and disruption to their lives and mental health.
Graeme Watson, image by The Royal Society published under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license.
Do you need some support?
If you are struggling with anxiety or depression, support and counselling are available from:
QLife: 1800 184 527 / qlife.org.au (Webchat 3pm – midnight)
QLife are a counselling and referral service for LGBTQIA+ people.
DISCHARGED: info@discharged.asn.au / discharged.asn.au
Discharged is a trans-led support service with peer support groups for trans and gender diverse folks.
Lifeline: 13 11 14 / lifeline.org.au
Beyondblue: 1300 22 4636 / www.beyondblue.org.au
You can support our work by subscribing to our Patreon
or contributing to our GoFundMe campaign.
