• In short: Transgender woman Roxanne Tickle is suing social media platform Giggle for Girls after she was excluded from the women-only app.
  • She is alleging unlawful discrimination on the basis of gender identity while the app’s founder has denied she is a woman.
  • What’s next? The hearing is expected to run for four days.

A transgender woman who was excluded from a women-only social media app should be awarded damages because the app’s founder has persistently denied she is a woman, a Sydney court has heard.

In February 2021, Roxanne Tickle downloaded the Giggle for Girls social networking app, which was marketed as a platform exclusively for women to share experiences and speak freely.

Users needed to provide a selfie, which was assessed by artificial intelligence software to determine if they were a woman or man.

Ms Tickle’s photograph was determined to be a woman and she used the app’s full features until September that year, when the account became restricted because the AI decision was manually overridden.

  • Bahalex@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I have nothing to add, just amused by the fact that a Tickle can’t get a giggle.

  • john89@lemmy.ca
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    7 months ago

    I don’t understand.

    It’s okay to discriminate against men but not transgender women?

    • prof@infosec.pub
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      7 months ago

      While I certainly agree with you that discrimination based on sex is unacceptable im most contexts, I believe that gender exclusive spaces, unless they hinder people directly, sometimes are a good thing.

      My dad is a mental health professional and founded a weekly ‘only-men’ self help group. He found that some things they talked about there wouldn’t have worked with women involved. That group existed for about 5 years or so and helped quite a few struggling men.

      So yeah, unless there’s any maliciousness involved, I’d argue that gender exclusiity is not bad in every context.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        That’s a bit different. A little private group is not a for-profit company. The difference between not being invited to a family only event when you aren’t family and not being allowed into a restaurant chain because of your race.

        • prof@infosec.pub
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          7 months ago

          The group I referenced had a paid membership. Scale that up and make it digital and you may end up with a gender exclusive social media app.

          I get what you mean though, but I feel there’s a bit more nuance than what you imply.

      • endhits@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        If women have gender exclusive spaces, men also should have them. Women have invaded male spaces for decades.

        • AnalogyAddict@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          There is a vast difference between men getting together to vent and talk, and men getting together to make decisions that affect everyone and preserve power amongst themselves.

          The minute it is the latter, it no longer qualifies as a men’s space. Women don’t want to invade a genuine men’s space. And women don’t want to invade a men’s space in order to exploit and prey upon men.

        • iegod@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          ‘Invaded’ lol what. Dude the boys club is a real thing. And it’s everywhere.

          • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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            7 months ago

            In pretty confident this person would agree with you. They’d also say women shouldn’t be allowed there. They don’t want the boys club to go away and think it’s being threatened because women are allowed in the workplace or whatever.

      • Taohumor@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        I remember back in high school I had a teacher in an all male classroom because it was a stem field but for kids like an introductory course. A girl showed up in the 2nd year and he sort of joked about how it changes the dynamic cuz now all the guys will need to flex for her so the point of the class was sort of ruined. I remember that class was actually fucking amazing because you would make friends with guys regardless of your social circle or wealth background. Like I talked to multiple demographics and we all treated each other equally and we were all there to learn the trade. It was an amazing experience that I’ve never found anywhere else, especially not any circle where there were women. Hell even guys who were in that class there were a few if you met them outside the class it was just different. I made some close friends there where we kept spending time together outside the class that I otherwise would not have met but others when they got back to “the rest of the world” that hierarchy set back in and they couldn’t bring themselves to talk to you on that level anymore. Women invading male safe spaces under the guise of glass ceilings or whatever was extremely toxic for men, it’s as if men started barging into women’s bathrooms honestly saying it’s a glass ceiling to their right to stare at women in their own private moments. Stupid example but it’s all I could come up with.

        The point is I would love to find another environment like that and even I wish I looked for more like that as a kid and to have appreciated it for what it was more at the time. Men need to learn to see each other as brothers and not as opposition, that’s the only way we get out of this mess is to unionize properly. I think we had it once but we lost it because of this fucking propaganda painting men as inherently predators.

        • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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          7 months ago

          Women invading male safe spaces under the guise of glass ceilings or whatever was extremely toxic for men, it’s as if men started barging into women’s bathrooms

          So the class wasn’t a “men only” class, it just was a class women generally weren’t interested in. And a woman deciding she is interested was the same as men barging into women’s bathrooms.

          Jfc, who are the snowflakes again?

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Seems like you do understand it.

      But fear not, if you want a website full of only men there are plenty out there.

    • tatterdemalion@programming.dev
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      7 months ago

      I’m not familiar with discrimination laws in Australia. In the US there are exceptions in the Civil Rights Act (1964) for “private clubs” though I don’t think courts have consistently defined what that means.

      I’m very curious to hear how this case turns out under Australian law. Personally I think it’s counterproductive to exclude trans women from a women-only social club. But if a US court ruled this social club was in fact a “private club” then they could legally discriminate in whatever way they desire, be that by excluding men or trans women.

    • ZK686@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Why not just create a “trans” app and make your own people happy too?

      • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        I down voted, not because I disagree with the claim, but because it doesn’t make any sense in the context and just reads as a knee-jerk dismissive response of a valid point.

        • Plague_Doctor@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          It’s true though. Gender is a performance, and as a woman your womanhood is always under scrutiny from everyone else. You can get your identity as woman taken from you if you don’t “look woman enough”. Which if you say have more masculine features, cut your hair short as a cis woman you become less woman. For example Butch lesbians are actually the most often de-womanized. Same goes for less masculine men. It’s a box no one fits into perfectly and having certain genitals doesn’t include or exclude you from either.

          This person wanted a safe space where they wouldn’t have to deal with cis straight men. Which makes it that if men want inclusion in such spaces they need to be better.

          Another question for you all, why as cis men do you want inclusion in these spaces?

          • ZK686@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            So, what about those who are born with a uterus? Where can they go? What if they decide, only those who were born with a vagina at birth, are women and we want only those to be part of our organization? I mean, are they wrong?

        • zbyte64@awful.systems
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          7 months ago

          “trans women are women” is pointing out this isn’t about men vs women but the given sex at birth.

          • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            We all accept that trans women are not cis women. The obvious point by the poster was why is it okay to discriminate against men but not trans women?

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Real /r/unpopularopinion moment.

        I think the thing that the TERFs ultimately miss is that this person was initially welcomed in as a woman and treated as a woman by her peers. She did not disrupt the community or harass any of the participants, until she voiced support for Trans Rights.

        It was at this point that a handful of moderators decided to interrogate her on her original gender and use that as an excuse to boot an active and in-good-standing member.

        So she wasn’t removed for “not being a woman”. She was removed for “disagreeing with the political views of the admin”.

        Anyone familiar with Reddit politics should be able to sympathize.

        • ZK686@lemmy.world
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          I don’t understand? Reddit politics is ultra liberal, they would eat this women’s app alive for discriminating against the trans.

        • ZK686@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Lol…what? I’ve read like 3 comments saying that the app is in the right, the overwhelmingly majority are siding with the trans…

      • ZK686@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        I define a woman as a female who has a uterus, how should I define them?

          • ZK686@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            That’s silly and you know it. She still had one to begin with. That’s like saying “if a dude cuts off his penis, he’s no longer a dude!”

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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              7 months ago

              I define a woman as a female who has a uterus

              Your definition. Has a uterus. You said nothing about a female who had a uterus.

              And you haven’t defined female.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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                  7 months ago

                  It’s not my fault that your definition excluded women who had a uterus at one time but didn’t later.

                  How about women who have two X chromosomes but were born without a uterus? Not women?

  • Kedly@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    This thread was fated to be a dumpster fire from the instant it was created

    • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I’ll explain my down-vote as per your edit: people don’t like thread meta discussions. It’s unproductive, mean and frankly just lazy. Keep that on reddit.

  • Sorgan71@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Wow an app based on gender descrimination is being sued for gender descrimination. I’m shocked

    • Taohumor@lemmy.world
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      You know what this means though? It means that no one ever needed to push back against it at all just not engage in it themselves. Cuz they just eat each other in a vacuum. Without some enemy to band together against like the boogeyman of boogeymen whitey, their inner chaos is all they’re left with with no enemy to project it on, so they eat each other and everything just crashes and falls apart. No one needed to do anything, not even complain, just look at it in amusement and take another sip of their coffee and go about their day thanking god that’s not you.

  • homura1650@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    I’m not familiar with Australian law, but how do you get to “discrimination on the basis of gender identity” in this case. Wouldn’t the case for that be a trans man trying to join or stay on the app? (Or a cis man for that matter).

    It sounds like Tickle’s position is that the app should be discriminating based on gender identity. Her complaint seems more like them discriminating on (vaguely defined policy ammounting to) assigned gender at birth.

    Having said that, I suspect their tune will change if a trans man tried joining.

    • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Having said that, I suspect their tune will change if a trans man tried joining.

      Exactly this. I fucking guarantee they wouldn’t let a trans man join and actively contribute.

    • mdwhite999@lemmy.sdf.org
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      7 months ago

      Discrimination based on gender identity is basically saying I have been treated differently due to being transgender. She is saying that she as a transgender woman is being treated differently to a cisgender woman. Or that is at least how it works in the UK. I would presume Australia is similar

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    I think she will win this. They didn’t require a genital photo so what’s even their proof? Arbitrary requirement anyways. Rules like that only leave people out. I understand the want for a space like that though. I hope this woman finds a space where she can feel safe.

      • Cypher@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        The case in the OP is in Australia. Your story is from the US and has absolutely zero bearing on any likely outcome.

      • mdwhite999@lemmy.sdf.org
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        7 months ago

        This case is being heard in Sydney, Australia not the US so a case from the US is not relevant in determining the outcome

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        What I found most interesting about that case is she was arguing that Christianity was homophobic and got the Supreme Court to agree with her.

        It was a bit of a floor dropping out from underneath me moment when I figured that out. How many years have I pointed out that being LGBT and a follower of Christ are inconsistent, and if you are LGBT with Christian friends you are their project? No one listens to me. And here one of them goes, spends all this effort and time, and manages to convince the court system that yes being a religious Christian means that you hate gay people.

        I doubt I have convinced anyone of this in my entire life, she made it an officially recognized fact. And this event will never be untrue since it did happen! For as long as records exist we will have a record of the moment where the US government agreed with me about what Christianity believes.

      • DillyDaily@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        I mean, given what’s happening with the women’s only art exhibit at the MONA right now, this woman definitely has a legal leg to stand on even with this being a private company.

        Even if it’s just a matter of false advertising (if the app means cis women they should say cis women, not say “women” and then go out of their to exclude an entire group of women) or compensation for being given access then having access removed.

  • deft@lemmy.wtf
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    7 months ago

    Wanna know how I know y’all suck?

    Tickle is taking on Giggle for Girls and not one witty joke?

  • ZK686@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Welcome to 2024, women can’t have their own things anymore… (and I’m talking about REAL women, you know, the individuals have two X chromosomes).

    • deegeese@sopuli.xyz
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      7 months ago

      It sounds like you’re trying to argue nobody should fight discrimination while there are still ditches to dig and toilets to scrub.

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    7 months ago

    What’s the point of a woman’s only app (or any women’s only space) if they let anyone in simply based on them saying ‘I’m a woman’?

    • imPastaSyndrome@lemm.ee
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      Dude, there’s like four sentences and they’re all on this page and it says it takes an AI assessed picture of your face to determine if you’re a woman. Why are people so fucking lazy and snarky?

    • Soup@lemmy.world
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      The question you have to ask here is “if anyone can just sign up then how was she noticed, and if they spend any time verifying then how did they not realize she was very serious about her womanhood?”. She’s had gender-affirming surgery and you’re really out here saying “if they let anyone in simply based on them saying ‘I’m a woman’?”.

      They’re clearly doing some work here and not doing it very well. And you’re missing very important facts.

    • wjrii@lemmy.world
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      Maybe because everything about the space still caters to women’s concerns, and the presumption for a random-ass social media app should be that your appearance doesn’t determine your intent? If somebody’s daily life is being a woman, then why the fuck should it matter which parts they have? Are you also going to exclude gay women, or women who cut their hair short, or women who choose not to have kids? After all, they’re not having all the same issues that long-haired cis-het mothers have.

      Not to mention it’s a technologically stupid gate to keep. In what fucking world does it deter anyone who is willing to be dishonest?

          • JCreazy@midwest.social
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            7 months ago

            Help me understand. You are saying there is absolutely no difference between a woman and a trans woman?

            • fiercekitten@lemm.ee
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              They are saying that all women — cis and trans — are women. It doesn’t mean or imply that trans women and cis women have no differences.

            • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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              Am I the same as you absolutely? No? Ok but we are both humans, right?

              When assigning things to categories we make lists of properties. So yes there are differences but those aren’t the criteria of assignment. A 90 year old cis woman and a 19 year old cis woman are both still woman despite them having differences.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        You can still be sexist without an app. It is a great leveler in humanity. No effort at all to hate someone for whatever reason you want whenever you want.

    • honey_im_meat_grinding@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      This is funny when you just look at your profile’s first page and see you’ve made comments like these:

      I hate this rhetoric. It implies that this a refular occurence. It is just a man hating comment. If this is happening to you frequently, maybe you are the problem. I am tired of being assumed an asshole just because I am a man. It is sexist. Plain and simple.

      So you deny “unproblematic” women regularly experiencing unsafe behavior from men who are entitled and you’re also denying people’s gender identity - otherwise, why would it be a waste of time for a woman’s fight for her right to access women’s spaces? So you’re hateful towards people you perceive to be “men” while complaining about “man haters” elsewhere. Logical inconsistencies in favor of hate is a hallmark sign of right wing extremist views.

      • JCreazy@midwest.social
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        That is some fancy mental gymnastics you came up with there. My comment before has absolutely nothing to do with this article. The fact that you went through my comment history to find a marginal strawman just goes to show you are trying to be argumentative. You can disagree with me all you want, it doesn’t mean you’re correct. In fact, nobody’s opinion can be correct.

        • xor@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          It’s not a “strawman” when it’s just quoting an actual comment you made - that’s called getting called out for your toxic bullshit

    • john89@lemmy.ca
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      It absolutely is.

      If it’s okay to exclude men, then it it should be okay to exclude trans women.

      • fiercekitten@lemm.ee
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        Or, we can recognize all the reasons that women (cis and trans) want and need women’s-only spaces. This site was claiming to be a space for women — not just cis women. According to the article, the site restricted Tickle’s account after some person there reviewed Tickle’s photo and determined that — because she didn’t look feminine enough — that she was not a woman. That, as well as using AI to determine gender or sex, are both deeply sexist and unacceptable.

        Not letting someone be part of a women’s space because they don’t meet someone’s standards of what a woman should look like? That’s bad. That’s wrong. That’s illegally discriminatory. That ends up hurting both cis and trans women, just like bathroom bills do.

        • homura1650@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          That’s illegally discriminatory.

          Under what law? I’m not familiar with Australia, but here the the US, transfolk are just piggybacking off of legal protections against gender discrimination; which were never actually intended to protect trans people.

          In most cases, that actually works out fine. If you discriminate against a transwomen, it’s because you think they are a man presenting as a women. However, you have no problem with a women presenting as a women, so you are running afoul of gender discrimination laws. Legally speaking, your problem was discriminating against her for being a man.

          In instances like this though, that argument doesn’t apply. Once you get to the “you are discriminating against her for being a man” stage of the analysis, the response is simply “yes, and I’m allowed to discriminate against men”.

          It seems like Australia would need to have a law that specifically protects trans people for her to prevail here.

        • Cypher@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          So you would see no issue if they had simply labeled the site as exclusive for cis women?