Transgender woman seeking $200k in discrimination case against female-only app

The founder of a female-only app waged an "online campaign" against a transgender woman she had refused to allow as a user, a court has heard.

Roxanne Tickle is suing the Giggle for Girls app and its founder, Sall Grover, to the tune of $100,000 for alleged discrimination based on her gender identity, a Federal Court hearing was told on Thursday.

Tickle is seeking an additional $100,000 for aggravated damages, based on an online campaign allegedly waged against her by Grover largely on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

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The court heard Grover has persistently misgendered Tickle in media interviews and across hundreds of posts she made about the case to her roughly 93,000 online followers.

Lawyer for Tickle, Georgina Costello told the court her client had received an "enormous" amount of online hate as a result of Grover's actions.

The Giggle app was created by Grover as "safe space" for women to interact with each other, free from male patterns of online violence, the court heard previously.

Grover blocked Tickle and refused to reinstate her based on a selfie uploaded by her to the app, which she perceived to be of a man, the court was told.

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Even when Grover was made aware Tickle identifies as a woman and holds a female birth certificate, she refused to accept her as such, Costello told the court.

"We say because of the way Grover views transgender women, she was unable to see that a transgender woman is a woman," Costello said.

The hearing continues.