Transgender woman's app discrimination case rejected by High Court
The founder of a women-only app has been refused special leave to challenge a ruling that found excluding a transgender woman from the platform was discriminatory. The High Court decision shuts down the final avenue of appeal in the landmark case.
The founder of a women-only app has been refused special leave to challenge a ruling that found excluding a transgender woman from the platform was discriminatory.
The High Court decision, published on Thursday, shuts down the final avenue of appeal in the landmark case of the Giggle for Girls app and Roxanne Tickle, who was previously awarded $20,000 in damages by the Federal Court.
Sall Grover, Giggle's founder and chief executive officer, sought to have the case heard by the High Court following an appeal outcome in May, which doubled the original damages of $10,000 and found there was direct rather than indirect discrimination.
The Federal Court ruled Roxanne Tickle had been discriminated against when she was excluded from a female-only app.
The High Court said there was no reason to doubt the Full Court's construction of the relevant section of the legislation.
"Any appeal dependent on the demonstration of error in the Full Court's construction of those provisions has insufficient prospects of success to warrant a grant of special leave to appeal," the judges said.
Special leave was refused with costs.
The Federal Court previously heard Ms Tickle accessed Giggle in 2021 after a registration process that required the uploading of a selfie.
The app, which was marketed as a digital women-only safe space, used artificial intelligence software designed to distinguish between the facial appearance of men and women.
Ms Tickle had access to the app between February and September that year, but her account was then restricted following a manual review.
Ms Grover contended that sex referred to a person's sex at birth.
Ms Tickle has lived as a woman since mid-2017, had her birth certificate reissued with a female sex marker and has undergone gender-affirming surgery, the Federal Court heard.
Ms Grover's lawyers unsuccessfully attempted to invoke a carve-out of discrimination law which exempts measures designed to achieve substantive equality between men and women.