Elon Musk has shared his thoughts on the term cisgender, claiming that to refer to somebody as such is "heterophobic".
Musk is no stranger to controversy, if anything he openly welcomes it as he claims to be a champion of free speech, spending much of his time on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The billionaire purchased Twitter for a staggering $44 billion in 2022. The changes since his takeover have been noticeable, including the option to pay for an upgraded service that gets you a blue check next to your name.
Given that he is now in complete control of the platform, Musk is more than happy to whip up a debate with his tweets, and his latest is no exception.
Seemingly unprovoked, he said: "Cis is a heterophobic word. Shame on anyone who uses it."
This isn't the first time Musk has expressed such sentiments. Back in June, he unilaterally labeled both "cis" and "cisgender" as hate speech.
The term cisgender gained popularity in the late 1990s, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, referring to individuals whose gender identity aligns with their assigned sex at birth. In contrast, transgender is used for those whose gender identity differs from their assigned sex at birth.
According to Forbes, after acquiring Twitter in late 2022, Musk faced criticism for stripping away protections for transgender individuals on the platform. This move, denounced by the LGBT activist group GLAAD, included removing rules against misgendering and deadnaming that had been implemented in 2018.
GLAAD highlighted that other social media platforms maintained protections for trans users, making Twitter an outlier in discarding these safeguards.
“This decision to roll back LGBTQ safety pulls Twitter even more out of step with TikTok, Pinterest, and Meta, which all maintain similar policies to protect their transgender users at a time when anti-transgender rhetoric online is leading to real-world discrimination and violence,” stated GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis in a published statement last year.
The response to Musk's recent outburst was mixed, with his fans supporting his standpoint while others indicated that he was misguided.
If you were curious about what other controversy Musk has whipped up, one of his latest remarks referred to people who refuse to have children as people with "awful morality".
Taking aim at a viral TikTok video featuring a couple proudly embracing the "of course" trend, where individuals disclose their membership in specific groups. Lilly Anne and her husband Evan chose to identify themselves as part of the "DINKs" category, signifying "dual-income no kids."
Musk expressed his disapproval on X, stating: "There is an awful morality to those who deliberately have no kids: they are effectively demanding that other people’s kids take care of them in their old age. That’s messed up."