cisgender

Etymology

From cis- (“on this side of”) + gender, by analogy with transgender. First attested in 1997. Compare slightly earlier cisgendered (1994).

adj

1. Having a gender identity which matches the sex one was assigned at birth; or, pertaining to such people.
   To uphold the inequality that we choose to engage in, we regularly present the myth that trans people are deviant or a danger to cisgender people. 25 April 2009, Renee Martin, The Guardian
   As trans people, we have many cisgender allies—those who show their support for the concerns, needs, and rights of trans people, even though they may not personally face the same issues. 2014, Laura Erickson-Schroth, Trans Bodies, Trans Selves, page 6
   R. Moskowitz charges cisgender readers to be as conscious and deliberate with our religious identities as transgender and gender non-conforming people are with theirs, arguing that holiness is only achieved through continuous and unrelenting struggle and change. 2019, Rachel Timoner, “Book Review: Textual Activism by Rabbi Mike Moskowitz”, in Tikkun
   Gender assumed many roles in this pandemic. Cisgender men were more likely to die from the virus, which seemed to be about inherent vulnerabilities of those with XY chromosomes. 2020-04-17, Rebecca Solnit, “Coronavirus does discriminate, because that’s what humans do”, in The Guardian
   Transgender people report discomfort with their birth sex and a strong identification with the opposite sex. The current study was designed to shed further light on the question of whether the brains of transgender people resemble their birth sex or their gender identity. For this purpose, we analyzed a sample of 24 cisgender men, 24 cisgender women, and 24 transgender women before gender-affirming hormone therapy. We employed a recently developed multivariate classifier that yields a continuous probabilistic (rather than a binary) estimate for brains to be male or female. The brains of transgender women ranged between cisgender men and cisgender women (albeit still closer to cisgender men), and the differences to both cisgender men and to cisgender women were significant (p = 0.016 and p < 0.001, respectively). These findings add support to the notion that the underlying brain anatomy in transgender people is shifted away from their biological sex towards their gender identity. 2022 March, Florian Kurth, Christian Gaser, Francisco J. Sánchez, Eileen Luders, “Brain Sex in Transgender Women Is Shifted towards Gender Identity”, in Journal of Clinical Medicine, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-07-25, Abstract

noun

1. A cisgender person.
   Even in regard to cisgenders, research shows that it's “easier” for people to identify male than female features, meaning that the default “visible” person in our culture is male “unless proven otherwise.” 2013, Shiri Eisner, Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution, page 107
   Is there a place for heterosexual cisgenders in Africa's queer movement? 2014, Zethu Matabeni, Reclaiming Afrikan, page 62