What are cis and trans alternate types of? I don’t think it’s “gender identity” because wouldn’t that just be man, woman or nonbinary regardless of whether they’re cis or trans? Cis/trans just being a qualifier?
If the answer is “I am cis” or “I am trans”, what is the question?
Edit: Someone came up with the term “gender congruity” and (after looking up the definition of “congruity”) I think this describes what I’m talking about perfectly.
I’m still not sure where the term cis comes from.
It reminds me of sans, as in ‘without’
Sans Serrif means a font without the twiddly bits at the end.
Cis Serrif, a font with the twiddly bits it was born with?
I’m not sure if it is their origin, but in organic chemistry nomenclature, cis refers to a molecule whose interesting bits are on the same side (imagine both of your arms up or both of your arms down), and trans to one whose interesting bits are on opposite sides (like if one of your arms is up and the other is down). In the gender metaphor, the two ‘interesting bits’ are your current identity and your birth identity - cis for when they are the same, and trans for when they are different.
Thanks for your reply. Makes sense. A quick google didn’t help much before I posted earlier.
“Cis-” is a Latin prefix meaning “on the same side as” and “Trans-” is a Latin prefix meaning “on the other side of”.