Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and ostensible champion of free speech, took to Twitter late Tuesday to stoop to a new low. Responding to a tweet complaining about being called “cis” — the shorthand version of the word “cisgender,” which means “not transgender” — Musk declared that from here on out, both terms are now considered slurs on the social network.
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”.
— James Esses (@JamesEsses) June 20, 2023
Just imagine if the roles were reversed.
The Twitter owner’s disdain for transgender people is no secret. His displeasure at the conservative satire account The Babylon Bee getting suspended for misgendering U.S. health official Rachel Levine is part of what animated him to throw down $44 billion for the social network. Since then, he’s predictably dismantled what rules were once in place on Twitter to protect the trans community.
Musk’s latest transphobic foray comes in the middle of Pride Month, in which LGBTQ Americans feel particularly embattled in light of a rash of potentially deadly anti-LGBTQ legislation and emboldened conservative discourse promoting open discrimination against the queer community.
In April, Twitter quietly erased a portion of its hateful content policy that forbids users from deadnaming and misgendering transgender people — a move many people in the LGBTQ community anticipated, given Musk’s specific hatred toward trans people.
Musk’s most recent declaration takes his transphobic position to its illogical conclusion, declaring reverse discrimination when transgender people use a commonplace, neutral word to discuss people who are not like them.
The result predictably limits speech on the social network — but only the speech of Musk’s perceived ideological enemies, who are under a real threat of harm across state legislatures, healthcare settings, and public life in a way their cisgender counterparts can’t begin to relate to.
