Cisgender is a term you may have come across in recent times (Picture: Getty Images)
Happy Pride month!
Each June we celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and highlight issues faced by the community as well as triumphs overcoming them.
Gender issues have come to the fore in a number of ways in recent times, and it’s important to understand what different terms mean in an effort to use them correctly.
Unless you label yourself transgender or non-binary, it’s likely that you’d be considered cisgender – but just what does the word mean?
What is cisgender?
According to the dictionary, the term cisgender means ‘denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their birth sex.’
This means, for example, if someone was born a female and identifies as a woman, they would be cisgender.
Some people prefer to use the term non-transgender or gender-normative.
However, since both of these assume that being trans is not normal (rather than trans and cis being simply two different but neutral experiences), they can be problematic.
Where does cisgender come from?
The term cisgender has its roots in the Latin language.
The word transgender comes from the Latin prefix trans, which loosely translates to ‘on the other side of’. Someone who is transgender feels like the sex they were assigned at birth does not match up with how they identify.
Gender issues have come to the fore in recent years (Picture: Getty Images)
Cis is also a Latin prefix, meaning ‘on this side of’, and cisgender refers to the exact opposite. If your gender identity matches your assigned sex, then you’re cisgender.
Cisgender has been seen in textbooks as far back as the early 1990s, but the prefix is used in front of other words in the medical field to describe a variety of different things.
Is cisgender offensive?
There are people who believe the word cisgender is offensive, with some believing that it promotes binaries of what it means to be male or female.
However, if you feel you do not identify with your assigned gender but don’t feel as if you fit into the transgender label either, you can refer to yourself as gender non conforming or non-binary.
It’s been criticised by LGBTQ+ and intersex scholars, who believe that it does not take into account myriad other factors when it comes to peoples’ sexuality and gender.
Gender identity is personal to each individual (Picture: Getty Images)
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But, at its crux, the issue comes down to how you feel comfortable with expressing yourself and identifying yourself.
It’s very similar to sexuality in that the labels are there for you to understand yourself and let others know who you are – no one is forcing you into a box, but if you’re homosexual, bisexual, queer, heterosexual, or anything else on the spectrum, then you can identify that way.
If you do fit the mould of a cisgender person but you don’t wish to be labelled like that, have a think about why that is.
The term represents your lived experience, and is only used as a marker, exactly as heterosexual would be for a straight person.
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Metro.co.uk celebrates 50 years of Pride
This year marks 50 years of Pride, so it seems only fitting that Metro.co.uk goes above and beyond in our ongoing LGBTQ+ support, through a wealth of content that not only celebrates all things Pride, but also share stories, take time to reflect and raises awareness for the community this Pride Month.
MORE: Find all of Metro.co.uk’s Pride coverage right here
And weâve got some great names on board to help us, too. From a list of famous guest editors taking over the site for a week that includes Rob Rinder, Nicola Adams, Peter Tatchell, Kimberly Hart-Simpson, John Whaite, Anna Richardson and Dr Ranj, weâll also have the likes Sir Ian McKellen and Drag Race stars The Vivienne, Lawrence Chaney and Tia Kofi offering their insights.
During Pride Month, which runs from 1 – 30 June, Metro.co.uk will also be supporting Kyiv Pride, a Ukrainian charity forced to work harder than ever to protect the rights of the LGBTQ+ community during times of conflict, and youth homelessness charity AKT. To find out more about their work, and what you can do to support them, click here.
