Thursday, September 19, 2024

Transgender woman wins case in Australia against female-only app

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Ms Tickle was excluded from the Giggle for Girls app, which was specifically designed as a “safe space” for women.

She said: “A small group of people have taken it upon themselves to declare that I am not who I know I am, and they have set about making my life miserable. 

“This case, and the unlawful and discriminatory exclusion from the Giggle… app, has stolen the last three years of my life.”

She downloaded Giggle for Girls – an app that men are barred from joining – in 2021.

To access the platform, Ms Tickle was asked to upload a selfie, which was then analysed by a gender recognition software to confirm she was a woman.

But seven months after successfully joining, she said her membership was unexpectedly revoked.

Exclusion anxiety

Ms Tickle said as someone who identifies as a woman, she was legally entitled to access a service designed for women.

She claimed discrimination based on her gender identity and sued the platform, seeking 200,000 Australian dollars (£102,750) for “persistent misgendering”.

She said her exclusion from the app had triggered “constant anxiety and occasional suicidal thoughts”.

Ms Tickle went through a gender transition and has been living as a woman since 2017.

Giggle’s legal team maintained throughout the case – which became known as “Giggle vs Tickle” – that sex is a biological concept.

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