Giggle legal case ‘a warning for women’

A lawsuit by a transgender woman who was barred from using a ­female-only app is a ‘huge warning bell for all Australian women who rely on female-only spaces’, a Liberal senator warns.

Giggle founder Sall Grover.

A transgender woman who was barred from using ­female-only app will appeal to the Federal Court to continue her case.

Roxanne Tickle, whose updated birth certificate following her transition from male designates her as a female, is attempting to sue social media app Giggle, which is marketed as a “safe space” for women, and its owner Sall Grover who had referred to Ms Tickle as a man.

Ms Tickle filed an application to the Federal Circuit and Family Court in June last year but after Ms Grover tweeted she would raise constitutional issues in her defence and was willing to “take the matter all the way to the High Court” she discontinued it.

She is applying for the court to bring the application “out of time” after “subsequently receiving limited funding”.

Liberal senator Claire Chandler has claimed Ms Tickle’s appeal is a “huge warning bell for all Australian women who rely on female-only spaces.”

Ms Tickle enjoyed full access to Giggle between February and September 2021 after uploading a selfie – a requirement of accessing the app – and third-party artificial intelligence software determined she was a woman, according to documents filed to the Human Rights Division of the Federal Court.

But Ms Tickle says her access was revoked when she logged back into the app in September 2021 and was blocked when she attempted to purchase “Premium” features.

She is now seeking damages, an apology and to be granted full access to Giggle, believing she was discriminated against on the basis of her sexual identity.

“The app provider appears to not recognise transgender women as female. I am legally permitted to identify as female,” she wrote in a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission in December 2021.

In April this year, Ms Grover told The Australian: “The person was removed from the Giggle app because they are male, no other reason. The removal was manual. I looked at the onboarding selfie and I saw a man. The AI software had let them through, thereby making a mistake that I rectified.” This comment was referred to in the Federal Court documents.

On Monday, Ms Grover said she could not comment on the case.

Senator Chandler, who introduced a private senator’s bill in 2022 that would amend the Sex Discrimination Act to support single-sex sports provisions, said “sex discrimination laws should not be preventing or limiting the availability of female-only spaces which are so important for many Australian women”.

The Sex Discrimination Act was changed in 2013 to make it unlawful to treat a person less ­favourably based on their gender-related identity.

“Sooner or later governments at all levels are going to have to face up to the fact that this is precisely what they have allowed to happen,” she added.

“Australian women are being told we cannot congregate together without the presence of males, or say no to males who force their way into services and spaces designed specifically for women”.

“The way in which Sall and her female only-app have been targeted by activists is disgraceful, and a huge warning bell for all Australian women who rely on female-only spaces and services,” she said.

Matilda Alexander, who does not represent Ms Tickle but is a human rights lawyer at the non-profit LGBTI Legal Service, said Ms Tickle was “absolutely a woman and should be treated the same way as other women”.

“It does seem to be a case of discrimination … I would hope that we’re at a point in society where equality and fairness are the prevailing virtues.”