App owner who lost discrimination case after barring trans woman denied appeal - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The chief executive of the female-only app Giggle for Girls, Sall Grover, barred Roxanne Tickle in 2021. (ABC News: ABC News: Liam Patrick)

Transgender woman Roxanne Tickle was previously awarded $20,000 in damages by the Federal Court after she was removed from an app designed as a women-only digital space.

The app's founder Sall Grover sought special leave in the High Court to challenge the ruling, which said that excluding a transgender woman from the platform was gender identity discrimination.

Special leave was refused with costs by the High Court, which found there was no reason to doubt the Full Court's construction of the relevant section of the legislation. 

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.

It was the first case to claim discrimination on the basis of gender identity since changes to the Sex Discrimination Act in 2013.

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. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)

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.

The Giggle for Girls app was marketed as a platform exclusively for women to share experiences. (AAP)

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.