Elon Musk's Cisgender Slur Remarks Torn Apart by Lawyer

Elon Musk's decision to categorize the terms "cis" and "cisgender" offensive slurs on Twitter is not based on fact or reality, according to a discrimination lawyer.

Musk weighed in on the trans debate on the social media platform that he owns, and shocked many by coming down hard on anyone who uses the term. Attorney Andrew Lieb has told Newsweek Musk is "trying to jump into a cultural war and create controversy" in order to help Twitter as a business.

Cis and cisgender are terms used to refer to people who identify with the gender assigned to them at birth, as opposed to trans and transgender people whose gender does not correspond to that which they were assigned at birth.

Many prominent conservative commentators have applauded Musk for his new stance on social media, and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has agreed, stating she holds the right to "refuse to adopt your jargon."

Late on Tuesday, Musk replied to political commentator James Esses who was complaining about being called "cissy" and "cis" by trans activists.

"Repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions," Musk said to Esses in response. "The words 'cis' or 'cisgender' are considered slurs on this platform."

Later on Wednesday, he then agreed with author-turned-controversial figure Rowling who shared her thoughts. "'Cis' is ideological language, signifying belief in the unfalsifiable concept of gender identity. You have a perfect right to believe in unprovable essences that may or may not match the sexed body, but the rest of us have a right to disagree, and to refuse to adopt your jargon," she wrote. Musk simply replied with, "Exactly."

The topic stirred up debate amongst the comments section on Twitter, with thousands of people adding their thoughts on both sides of the debate.

Discrimination attorney Lieb, of Lieb at Law, believes overall that inciting debate is what Musk may be trying to do.

As a piece of language, Lieb believes there's no reason "cis" should qualify as a slur.

"There is nothing inherently discriminatory or a slur about the terms 'cis' and 'cisgender.' Instead, they are adjectives with benign definitions according to (dictionary publisher) Oxford Languages. That said, if someone does not want to be referred to as either 'cis' or 'cisgender,' for whatever reason, the act of continuing to refer to someone in that manner could constitute harassment and possibly discrimination because context is everything. Yet, that is not what Elon Musk is saying. Instead, he is trying to jump into a cultural war and create controversy because Twitter's business model revolves around controversy," he said.

Lieb continued: "Add to that that it is now required in conservative circles to be anti-woke and this plays very well with the base that Elon is trying to attract. That all said, it is actually very sad for Elon to be projecting in this way about a term utilized to differentiate between transgender and biological sexes when it comes to gender given that his own daughter Vivian Wilson, formerly known as Xavier Musk, is transgender."

Lieb is referring to Musk's 19-year-old daughter Vivian, whom he had while he was married to Justine Wilson between 2000-2008. Vivian was born biologically male, but in April 2022 petitioned to legally change her gender and name from Xavier Alexander Musk to Vivian Jenna Wilson. Within the documents, she stated she "longer lives with or wishes to be related to her biological father in any way, shape, or form."

Lieb continued: "In all, our takeaway needs to be that one should feel very sad for Vivian and even for Elon who appears very troubled by gender-identity and needs to alienate what is different from him in order to cope."

Newsweek has contacted Musk's representatives via email for further comment.