Yes! Using "cisgender" in appropriate conversations simply makes communication more clear and effective.

Sometimes it's necessary to distinguish between cisgender people and transgender people, and obviously when discussing transgender issues, that necessity is likely to come up.

For example, we might need to say that, "Transgender women are, according to the most recent statistics, approximately a full order of magnitude more likely to experience violence based on their gender than cisgender women." (This is true, by the way, in the United States.)

It would be pretty darn hard to have that conversation if we weren't able to use "cisgender."

What would we say? "Transgender women are more likely to experience violence than women?"

That barely parses as a proper sentence. Clearly, it doesn't work, because it doesn't convey the information we're trying to convey.

I'm reminded of a ridiculous answer I read on Quora last night. One of my amateur interests is historical linguistics, and I enjoy reading Quora, because many professional linguists are generous with their time answering questions there.

However, such discussions are sometimes disrupted in a very similar way to how transgender conversations are disrupted by people who don't like "cisgender."

Somebody had posed a question something like, "Why is phrase X common in British English but not in American English?"

I love reading answers to questions like this, because frequently a linguist will give us a really deep dive into the origins of language usage.

But last night, instead of a linguist answering, a very irate English woman answered. "First, you must understand," she said, "that there is no such thing as British English. English was invented right here in England, and it's our language, and it is simply English. Period, full stop."

You see this kind of sentiment on Quora sometimes, and it's beyond silly. I mean, there are close to a billion people in South Asia who speak variants of English that linguists call Indian English.

Then there are American English variants, not to mention variants in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc, — All of which have more or less diverged from the point where they started. And, of course, the variants of English spoken in the UK evolve and diverge just as quickly as language does anywhere — which is to say, pretty darn quickly.

Therefore, when talking about the differences between language variants, it's important to be able to distinguish what we're talking about. That's why we sometimes say British English, although linguist recognize several variants of said language.

The woman who answered the question in that snarky manner wasn't an interested in the discussion. She was interested in holding up her own personal variant of English as supreme or superior to other versions. She was trying to shut the conversation down, because for whatever reason the conversation makes her uncomfortable.

(Also note the way she used the word "period." I thought that was pretty funny, because she seems unaware that she was pulling it from American English, where it originated.)

Similarly, the people who object to the word cisgender are doing so because they don't want transgender people to exist. They don't want transgender people to be able to live openly and freely in society.

They're trying to shut the conversation down, not add to it.

Just like that woman on Quora.