Also written: Cisgender, Cis
| Source | Year | Position |
|---|---|---|
| SumOfUs | 2016 | Use |
| Global Center for Journalism & Trauma | 2021 | Use |
| Sierra Club | 2021 | Use |
| Diversity Style Guide | 2023 | Use with care |
| Racial Equity Tools | 2023 | Use |
| Trans Journalists Association | 2026 | Use |
“non-cisgender, cisgender”
SumOfUs lists 'cisgender' on its accepted-terms list for the Gender/Sex section, paired with 'non-cisgender' as a parallel construction. The guide treats cisgender as the standard term for people whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth, consistent with the broader rule to use specific terms tied to self-identification.
“When writing about a trans person, don't describe them as 'identifying' with a specific gender. Just say 'is' instead, as you would with a cisgender person whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth.”
GCJT uses 'cisgender' as the working term for someone whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth, and applies it in the parallel-construction rule for transgender coverage: write 'is a cisgender woman' / 'is a transgender woman,' not 'identifies as.' The guide does not give cisgender its own entry but uses it as the operative counterpart to transgender.
“Use the term 'cisgender' (rather than 'non-trans' or 'non-transgender') to refer to a person who is not transgender, if there is a need to refer to their gender. Cisgender means you identify with the gender you were assigned at birth.”
Sierra Club prescribes 'cisgender' as the correct term for people who are not transgender, explicitly rejecting 'non-trans' and 'non-transgender' as the parallel constructions. The entry frames cisgender as the affirmative descriptor rather than a negation, and treats it as the standard counterpart to transgender.
“A term used by some to describe people who are not transgender. 'Cis-' is a Latin prefix meaning 'on the same side as,' and is therefore an antonym of 'trans-.' A more widely understood way to describe people who are not transgender is simply to say non-transgender people.”
DSG accepts cisgender as a working term but suggests 'non-transgender people' may be more widely understood by general audiences. The entry sources NLGJA's stylebook supplement noting cisgender can be shortened to 'cis' or combined as 'ciswoman' / 'cisman,' and notes the term distinguishes without treating cisgender as 'the neutral or normal state.'
“The term cisgender is not a slur. People who are not trans should avoid calling themselves 'normal' and instead refer to themselves as cisgender or cis.”
RET (sourcing PFLAG's June 2022 glossary) prescribes cisgender as the standard self-description for people who are not transgender, and explicitly names the term's contested politics: cisgender is not a slur, and the alternative ('normal') is the construction to avoid. The companion 'cissexism' entry frames cisgender privilege as a structural system, distinct from cisgender as an identity descriptor.
“A term coined by a biologist and used to describe someone whose gender is exclusively the one they were assigned at birth. Use this term rather than 'normal,' 'typical,' etc. when contrasting trans people with the broader non-trans population.”
TJA defines cisgender as someone whose gender is exclusively the one they were assigned at birth and prescribes it as the affirmative descriptor for the non-trans population — explicitly rejecting 'normal' or 'typical' as the contrasting construction. The companion 'cis' entry treats the short form as the direct equivalent of 'trans' for transgender, and notes some cisgender people object to its use.
The corpus agrees that cisgender is the affirmative descriptor for people whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth. RET, GCJT, TJA, Sierra Club, and SumOfUs all use the term without scare quotes and treat it as standard. Two of the guides root it etymologically: “cis-” is a Latin prefix meaning “on the same side as,” the formal antonym of “trans-” (DSG, RET). TJA notes only that the term was “coined by a biologist.” None of the post-2020 sources frame it as activist jargon; it is the counterpart to Transgender.
The corpus agrees on what to use cisgender instead of. TJA says it should replace “normal” or “typical” when contrasting trans people with the broader population; Sierra Club says it should replace “non-trans” or “non-transgender.” Between them the guides reject both kinds of alternative — the “normal/typical” framing that encodes transgender as a deviation, and the negation forms that define cisgender people only by what they are not. RET adds that cisgender is not a slur, and that people who are not transgender should call themselves cisgender rather than “normal.”
DSG’s 2023 entry hedges: “A more widely understood way to describe people who are not transgender is simply to say non-transgender people.” The post-2023 sources drop that hedge — TJA’s 2026 stylebook treats cisgender as straightforward and uses it operationally. The move is from “term used by some” (DSG 2023) to “use this term” (TJA 2026, Sierra Club 2021, RET 2023). GCJT applies the rule from a different angle: write “is a cisgender woman” / “is a transgender woman,” not “identifies as,” since “identifies as” implies the identification is provisional in a way the parallel “is” does not.