Trans woman wins case against social app that excluded her for not being cisgender

A trans woman from Australia won a lawsuit against a trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF)-run social app known as Giggle For Girls after she was banned from the app for being a trans woman. The app has been ordered to pay her $10,000 Australian (about $6,800 U.S.), plus legal fees.

“I have found that Ms Tickle’s claim of direct gender identity discrimination fails, but that her claim of indirect gender identity discrimination succeeds,” writes Justice Robert James Bromwich of the Federal Court of Australia in a summary judgment. “I will also order the respondents to pay Ms Tickle compensation in the sum of $10,000 and to pay her costs, with a cap in respect of costs to do with the constitutional validity and statutory construction issues.”

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The lawsuit concerned Roxanne Tickle, a trans woman who was a user of Giggle in 2021 before being banned. The app had marketed itself as being made only for women and was created by CEO Sall Grover, who has been a prominent self-described TERF activist.

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Giggle used facial recognition via KairosAI gender detection software to screen out those they deemed “men.” Tickle had been let through Giggle’s facial recognition algorithm and was deemed a woman by the app and used the app for seven months. It was only in September or early October last year that she noticed she was banned from the app.

It was later revealed that Grover had manually banned Tickle from the app because she was deemed insufficiently “female.” Judge Bromwich ruled that, while Tickle did not receive direct discrimination because of her gender identity, she did receive indirect discrimination due to her sex “because she did not look sufficiently female.”

“The same evidence did, however, support the conclusion that indirect gender identity discrimination did take place. The indirect discrimination case has succeeded because Ms Tickle was excluded from the use of the Giggle App because she did not look sufficiently female, according to the respondents,” said Bromwich.

“This finding applies only to the act of excluding Ms Tickle from the Giggle App. It does not apply to her not being readmitted due to the lack of evidence to explain this, or even to establish that any positive decision was made not to allow her readmission to the Giggle App.”

Tickle had reportedly received a great deal of harassment along with threats as a result of controversy from the app, leading her to become suicidal. She initially sought $200,000 in damages, owing to the misgendering as well.

During the court battle, Grover reportedly laughed at an offensive caricature of Tickle that was brought up. This was used as further evidence against Grover that she was discriminating against her, and she was formally reprimanded for the misconduct. She also openly told the court she would not gender Tickle correctly.

Grover said on social media of the court battle: “Unfortunately, we got the judgement we anticipated. The fight for women’s rights continues. #TickleVGiggle”

Unfortunately, we got the judgement we anticipated.

The fight for women’s rights continues. 🙋‍♀️#TickleVGiggle

— Sall Grover (@salltweets) August 22, 2024

Tickle said in a statement outside court, “I’m pleased by the outcome of my case and I hope it is healing for trans and gender diverse people. The ruling shows that all women are protected from discrimination.”

“I brought my case to show trans people that you can be brave and you can stand up for yourself. I can now get on with the rest of my life and have a coffee down the road with my friends, play hockey with my team and put this horribleness behind me.”

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