A transgender woman from Australia has won a discrimination case against a women-only social media app, after she was denied access on the basis of being male.
The Federal Court found that although Roxanne Tickle had not been directly discriminated against, she was a victim of indirect discrimination - which refers to when a decision disadvantages a person with a particular attribute - and ordered the app to pay her A$10,000 ($6,700; £5,100) plus costs.
It’s a landmark ruling when it comes to gender identity, and at the very heart of the case was the ever more contentious question: what is a woman?
In 2021, Tickle downloaded “Giggle for Girls”, an app marketed as an online refuge where women could share their experiences in a safe space, and where men were not allowed.
I’d think no. This is barring someone from using an app entirely. But when it comes to dating, everyone has a preference of gender, even if that preference is “no preference”.
And dating isn’t discrimination. It’s picking a person that you want to spend extra, and frequently intimate, time with. It’s a billion subconscious factors that your brain interprets as love, affection, or whatever other emotion your brain wants. Can some of those factors be discriminatory? Sure.
I like men and women and everything in-between and around, and I’m sure I have plenty of biases and discriminations of my own, but that’s not enough to outright call all dating discrimination