Cisnormativity

Cisnormativity is the presumption that all people are cisgender, meaning their gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth, and that being cisgender is the normal or expected way to exist. The term was coined in a 2009 article in the Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care and has since spread through trans studies and queer theory. It shows up in everyday speech, in law, and in institutions: naming trans people as an exception to an unstated norm, enforcing a rigid gender binary, or regulating how gender transition is legally recognized. Like heteronormativity, cisnormativity operates quietly through systems and culture, which is part of what makes it hard to see and important to name.