Iemand van wie de genderidentiteit overeenkomt met het geslacht dat bij de geboorte werd toegewezen.
Iemand van wie de genderidentiteit overeenkomt met het geslacht dat bij de geboorte werd toegewezen. "Cis" is Latijn voor "aan dezelfde kant". Een neutrale, beschrijvende term, geen scheldwoord.
Voordat "cisgender" bestond, was er geen neutraal woord voor mensen van wie de genderidentiteit overeenkwam met het bij de geboorte toegewezene geslacht - zij werden simpelweg "normaal" genoemd, waarmee transgender mensen impliciet als abnormaal werden neergezet. Transactivisten betoogden dat een parallelle, neutrale term nodig was. De term is nu standaard in academische, medische en gemeenschapscontexten.
Myth: cisgender is a slur
It is a descriptive adjective with a Latin prefix, coined in academic writing and now in every major English dictionary. It has no history of being used to demean anyone, and it does not name anything shameful. The reaction is usually less about the word and more about the discomfort of being categorised at all, which is an experience trans people have every day.
Myth: nobody asked to be called this
Nobody asked to be called heterosexual either. Descriptive categories are not opt-in. If the objection is that a word implies trans identity is equally normal, that is not a misreading of the word, it is what the word is for.
Myth: cisgender means conforming to gender roles
It does not. Cisgender is about identity matching assignment, and nothing else. Butch cis lesbians, feminine cis men, and cis people with no interest in gendered expectations are all cisgender.
Myth: you cannot be cisgender and intersex
You can. An intersex person whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth may describe themselves as cisgender, though many intersex people find neither cis nor trans fits well and prefer to leave the question alone. Follow the person's own usage.
Myth: cisgender is an insult when used in arguments
A neutral word can be used rudely, like any other. "Cis people should listen here" is a claim about a conversation, not an insult. If the word is doing work you dislike, the disagreement is with the claim, not the vocabulary.
