Transgender discrimination ‘test case’ to proceed

Transgender woman Roxanne Tickle made a complaint after being denied access to a female-only social app.

Applicant Roxanne Tickle. Picture: Supplied

A case brought by an Australian transgender woman against a female-only social app and its founder for discrimination will be heard in court, after it was previously discontinued.

Federal Court Justice Robert Bromwich has granted “an extension of time” to Roxanne Tickle “in the interest of justice”. Ms Tickle has also won costs of $50,000 after Giggle for Girls Pty Ltd and its founder Sall Grover made a competing constitutional challenge.

Ms Tickle, who underwent gender affirming surgery in 2019 and is designated as female on her birth certificate, will argue she was discriminated against on the grounds of gender identity when she was denied access to the Giggle for Girls app, which was otherwise available to cisgender women.

She was originally accepted into the app when third-party artificial intelligence determined a ‘selfie’ she submitted as that of a woman but later blocked by Ms Grover because "the applicant was an adult human male".

Sall Grover developed an app called Giggle.

Screenshot of the app called Giggle, which is a social media app for women.

Justice Bromwich called the matters to be put on trial “a test case”.

“The applicant submits that it is reasonable to expect that the wider public will be interested in the outcome, amplified by the absence of any case thus far to have considered s 5B of the SD (Sexual Discrimination) Act in the context of a gender diverse person, being something of a test case,” he said in his judgment.

Essentially, she is arguing under section 5B she was treated less favourably than a cisgender woman because she is transgender.

Ms Grover, however, argued that the case was “to advance the private interests” of Ms Tickle.

Justice Bromwich concluded it was “neither a purely public interest proceeding, nor a purely private interest proceeding. It has both features,” adding there was particular public interest in the constitutional arguments which Ms Grover raised.

Ms Grover and Giggle also argued the terms “cisgender” and “transgender” are not in the Sexual Discrimination Act and so can’t be brought under section 5B.

“The difference in the applicant’s case and the respondents’ case is stark and wholly irreconcilable. One will ultimately be found to be right, and the other wrong,” Justice Bromwich said.

In July 2022, Ms Tickle discontinued the matter in the courts because she was “unwilling to bear the risk of adverse costs”.

After receiving funding from specialist non-profit litigation funder Grata Fund, she was required to bring an application to restart proceedings “out of time”.