We explain what a cisgender person is, their characteristics and differences with transgender people. Also, other gender identities.
What is a cisgender person?
A person cisgender is one whose gender identity coincides with the biological configuration of his body, that is, the one whose identity and body coincide. This refers to the psychological and social identity of the individual, and not to the sexual preference or orientation of the individual, so that cis people can be both heterosexuals as homosexuals.
In this way, we can speak of two classes of cisgender people:
- Cis men. Those who were born with a male body and identify themselves as men, that is, they express themselves socially and psychologically as individuals of the male sex. These men can be heterosexual or homosexual.
- Cis women. Those who were born with a female body and identify themselves as women, that is, they express themselves socially and psychologically as individuals of the female sex. These women can be heterosexual or homosexual.
The term “cisgender” was coined in 1998 by the German psychiatrist and sexologist Volkmar Sigusch (1940-), using the distinction made in biology by the prefixes cis- Y trans-, coming from Latin and translatable as "on this side" (cis) and "on the other side" (trans). These words are used, for example, to identify the structure of proteins, in the sense that the cis and trans are identical, but one is the mirror image of the other.
By distinguishing between "cis" and "trans" it seeks to destigmatize the trans community and non-binary people, accepting them as a identity more within the spectrum of the psychological and social expression of sexuality despite the majority of the world's people identifying as cis.
Differences between cisgender and transgender
The difference between cis people and trans people can be summarized as follows:
| cis people | trans people |
| The gender identity with which they think of themselves coincides with the one assigned to them at birth. | The gender identity with which they think of themselves does not coincide with the one assigned to them at birth. |
| They express their sexuality socially and psychologically within the conventional and traditional norms of society. | They may have serious difficulties in expressing their sexuality socially and psychologically, considering that they were born "with the wrong body". |
| They tend to have a greater facility to function in society, despite the fact that their sexual orientation may be a source of discrimination. | They usually have difficulties to function in society, since their gender condition does not fit in a binary society and is usually a source of rejection and discrimination. |
Other gender identities
In addition to cisgender, there are other gender identities such as:
- Transgender. Those people whose gender identity does not match the one assigned to them at birth, or who were "born with the wrong body".
- Agender. Those people whose gender identity does not fit with any binary gender identity, that is, they do not feel like men or women.
- fluid gender. Those people whose gender identity can change or alternate between male and female, or even between non-binary, depending on the context or life time.
- non-binary gender. Those people who profess a gender identity that, for one reason or another, does not fit into the binary male-female distinction. It is an “umbrella” term that serves to accommodate different non-traditional identities, such as agender, bigender or fluid gender.