How Elon Musk's Latest Hot Take Shows a Serious Misunderstanding of Science

Elon Musk has made some outrageous choices since taking over command of Twitter in October 2022. Between massive layoffs, leaving Twitter's fate to a public survey, and hosting space for controversial politicians, Musk's Twitter is nearly as contentious as the man himself.

Now, according to Musk, a new term has let Twitter users know that "the words 'cis' or 'cisgender' are considered slurs on this platform." It's another message from Musk that solidifies what many see as anti-transgender sentiment -- at a time when several trans-discriminatory laws have been proposed in various US states.

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For those familiar with scientific terminology, Musk's new stance is baffling. After all, the prefix "cis" is regularly used in scientific studies. "Cis-" is derived from Latin, meaning "on this side." Its opposite is "trans-," meaning "across" or "on the other side". So linguistically, a person who is not transgender would be cisgender.

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The move to potentially change Twitter's Terms of Service to include "cisgender" as hate speech isn't Musk's first controversial move regarding harassment on Twitter. Musk has tried to remake the platform in the image of his own beliefs on "freedom of speech," which has reportedly opened floodgates for harassment and hate speech on the platform already.

Whether or not this Tweet means a change for Twitter has yet to be seen. So far, it's just a response to anti-trans writer James Esses, who has said that he "reject[s] the word 'cis'". Esses, like Musk, is not transgender. Gosh, it sure would be handy if there was a word for that.