What is cis?

[nvlady]

I often see on this forum the expression cis. What does it stand for? I tried to look it up in search and faq, but couldn't find anything.

[Nadine Spirit]

As I understand it, cis-gender means you identify as the gender you were born as.

[Robin777]

Found this on urban dictionary

cisgendered
adj form of cisgender

The opposite of transgendered, someone who is cisgendered has a gender identity that agrees with their societally recognized sex.

Many transgender people prefer "cisgender" to "biological", "genetic", or "real" male or female because of the implications of those words. Using the term "biological female" or "genetic female" to describe cisgendered individuals excludes transgendered men, who also fit that description. To call a cisgendered woman a "real woman" is exclusive of transwomen, who are considered within their communities to be "real" women, also.
Some of my friends are trans, but I'm cisgendered.

[justmetoo]

Fun tidbit - You can find similar usage of cis and trans in words like transalpine and cisalpine. :)

[Kate T]

cis and trans are prefixes applied to words, typically nouns, to add meaning to the root word e.g. transfats are fats where a particular carbon bond occurs opposite to the direction of all the other carbon bonds in the fat, transatlantic meaning the other side of the atlantic ocean. The cis suffix generally means "the same".

When applied to gender the suffixes are generally taken to relate to the relationship between gender identity and physical sex / genetics i.e. a cisgendered woman has female physical sex and female gender identity. A transgendered woman has a male physical / genetic sex and female gender identity. The gender noun used after the trans suffix i.e. transwoman, transman, is generally by convention taken to be the gender identity of the individual rather than their physical /genetic sex.

Often on these forums the prefixes are used without adding the actual noun as it is assumed that when used they are referring to gender (though technically this is not correct grammar, but hey, most of the internet is not correct grammar :)).

[DonnaT]

cis means not trans

[PaulaQ]

cis - or cisgender - means you identify as the gender that matches your biological sex. (We can debate that latter term, but ignore such details for now...)
trans - or transgender - means you identify as the opposite gender from your biological sex.

[Anna H]

seems kinda backwards.....

eh, cis?

lol!

[Katey888]

In fact this is noted in the abbreviations list in the Loved Ones section sticky (here: http://www.crossdressers.com/forums/showthread.php?162499-Common-abbreviations-used-in-this-forum)

But thank you members for responding and (largely) agreeing... :)

Katey
Moderator