Having witnessed a transwoman friend go through some extreme, but unfortunately recurrent, bad experiences at the hands and mouths of ignorant cis people, I have complete sympathy for a trans* person who has gone through the same hell, day in and day out, all their lives. When you not only feel like you are struggling to survive in a sea full of assholes and bullies - but fucking well actually are - it's easy to understand that ya gotta vent now and then. Is it a polite term? Does it make people stop and think about changing their hateful attitudes? No. But so what....Cis people don't have to deal with this particular kind of shit. This kind of shit gets condoned or passively whitewashed by an awful lot of people who witness it, because they feel the same way, or just don't care enough to get involved. And so trans* people get insulted, discriminated against, harassed, beaten and killed every day. No wonder some scream "Die cis scum" online or IRL. If you as a cis person actually are more than maybe just a little annoyed by the term, you have some serious issues in re the lack of spinal resilience. It smacks of a "White Whine" reaction.