The Federal Court of Australia has ordered a women-only social network to pay 10,000 Australian dollars (6,066 euros) to a transsexual woman. Roxanne Tickle She registered on the platform and was accepted for use, but after a while her permission was denied because she was considered a man.
It was 2021 when Tickel downloaded the app Laugh for girls (Laughter for Girls, in Spanish), an app known for being a safe space for women and that excluded men.
When registering, the trans woman posted a selfie to a system of facial recognition app to verify your gender. The photograph was accepted by a software specialized in gender recognition and specifically adapted to reject users who were male.
Tickle started to enjoy Laugh for girls without any problems. But after seven months, everything changed. His membership in the social network was revoked and he could no longer use the platform, which led to a complaint.
Roxanne Tickle reported for being victims of discrimination because of their gender identity and claimed she had every right to use the social network’s services, which are reserved for women. He sued the platform and its director, Sall Grover.
Initially, he requested compensation of 200,000 Australian dollars (121,321 euros) for the damages suffered. She even alleged that the “confusion” about her gender had caused her “anxiety and suicidal thoughts”.
The social network, however, claims that sex is a biological concept and that gender discrimination against Tickle was “legitimate” because the app was specifically designed to exclude men.
The judge did not accept the argument of the social network’s lawyers and stressed that Australian case law considers that sex can be “editable and not necessarily binary”. He therefore ordered the platform to pay Roxanne Tickle 10,000 Australian dollars, an amount much lower than the 200,000 requested by the trans woman.
