Judgement to exclude trans woman from social media app constituted gender-identity discrimination

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A federal court judge has ruled, the exclusion of a trans woman from a female-only app constituted gender identity discrimination. The plaintiff Roxanne tickle has been awarded $10,000 in compensation.

Transcript

00:00It's a fight Roxanne Tickle says stole three years of her life.

00:06There is so much hate and vile cast on trans and gender diverse people simply because of

00:11who we are.

00:12In 2021, she joined the women-only social networking app Giggle, submitting a selfie

00:17assessed by AI to be female.

00:20But that was later manually overridden and her account was restricted.

00:24Ms Tickle sued the app's founder, Sal Grover, claiming discrimination on the basis of gender

00:29identity.

00:30She has a birth certificate stating her gender is female and has undergone gender-affirming

00:35surgery.

00:36Giggle's legal team considered sex to mean the sex of a person at birth.

00:41Today a judge said those arguments were contrary to 30 years of precedent.

00:46Those cases established that in its ordinary meaning, sex is changeable.

00:50Unfortunately it is the judgement we anticipated and the fight for women's rights in Australia

00:55continues.

00:56The judge found there had been indirect gender identity discrimination against Roxanne Tickle

01:02because she was excluded from using the app after Giggle staff, in their view, determined

01:07she did not look sufficiently female.

01:10I brought my case to show trans people that you can be brave and that you can stand up

01:15for yourself.

01:16I think that this judgement sends the message that we want an inclusive society in which

01:22all can participate and that includes trans people as well as people who have a range

01:27of sexual orientations.

01:28The judge declined to order an apology as requested, saying it would be devoid of sincerity.

01:34For now the app remains offline.

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