An Australian court has ruled that it was ‘discrimination’ to remove the account of a man, who has been living as female, from a social media app for women only.
The ruling which was made on Friday said the actions by the app, called Giggle for Girls, constituted discrimination, according to a report from Reuters:
Roxanne Tickle in 2022 sued the Australian app and founder Sally Grover for unlawful gender identity discrimination in its services, saying Grover revoked Tickle’s account after seeing her photo and “considered her to be male.”
Breitbart reports: The Federal Court, Australia’s second-highest, ordered Giggle for Girls to pay Tickle A$10,000 ($6,700) plus legal costs but declined to order the company to issue a written apology, which Tickle had sought.
In February 2023, journalist Andy Ngô shared images of Tickle wearing women’s clothing, saying he “identifies as a woman”:
In his comments after the ruling, Judge Robert Bromwich explained that “Tickle’s claim of direct gender identity discrimination fails, but her claim of indirect gender identity discrimination succeeds.”
The app’s purpose was to be a place for women to talk about and share their experiences. It suspended operations in 2022 but is reportedly going to be relaunched, according to the Reuters article.
In April, author and news contributor Oli London told Sky News Australia that “if Tickle is successful that could change the sex-based rights of every single woman in Australia.”
“So that would mean that the sex discrimination law would include biological men that identify as women allowing them access to women’s spaces including restrooms, spas, crisis shelters, even rape shelters. That is absolutely shocking to say that a man can enter a woman’s shelter if this law changes,” London said.
“Roxy Tickle has previously said on multiple interviews that they believe they are entitled to using women’s only spaces including locker rooms,” he added:
