An Australian man tried to join a women’s only chat app. The creator told him, “No.” Now, he’s suing – and if history is any indication, he might win.
Meet Roxanne Tickle – no, really.
Tickle here, with the face stubble and squared-off jawline, is, as you might expect based on just looking, a dude. But Tickle thinks he’s a she, and as part of his personal quest to become a woman, tried to join a women-only app called “Giggle.”
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Started by a businesswoman named Sall Grover, Giggle is an app for women (actual ones) to give them a space to connect and talk in an all-female space – which, naturally, would exclude people like Tickle, who were born…well, with penises. But Tickle, by virtue of believing himself to be a woman and having changed his legal identity to reflect that farce, tried to join anyway. He made it past the first stage of acceptance to the platform, in which a computer analyzed his face and determined he was female. But a later manual review caught the mistake, and he was booted from the app. Why? Well, because Grover understandably thought Tickle was a guy.
Because he is.
Incensed, Roxanne wrote to Grover asking why he’d been kicked off the app, explaining, “I am legally permitted to identify as female” and should therefore be included on the platform. Grover, wanting to protect the female-only space she'd created, declined.
Now, in a lawsuit first filed in July and recently renewed, Tickle is seeking damages, a written apology, and access to Giggle based on the claim that he really is a woman. Grover’s legal team, on the other hand, is arguing that the app and its creator isn't arguing against Tickle's right to identify however he likes, but that biological women also have a right to use the app as it was intended: biological man-free.
The case is one to watch, as it is reportedly the first in Australia that will determine whether biological women have rights that supersede “trans” ones, or whether “gender identity” is the more protected class. According to legal experts, the decision could have far-reaching ramifications in other disputes, such as over sex-designated areas like bathrooms and locker rooms, sex-specific businesses, and sports.
Who’d have thought that allowing men to invade women’s spaces might cause a conflict?