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By Ryan Smith
Senior Pop Culture & Entertainment Reporter
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A CEO of a female-only app, who is currently embroiled in a legal battle over revoking a transgender woman's membership on her platform, has requested an interview with Joe Rogan after her case was brought up on his show.
In 2022, Roxanne Tickle filed a lawsuit against Giggle for Girls and its CEO, Sall Grover, alleging unlawful discrimination after her membership to the platform was revoked in 2021. The trial commenced earlier this month; Tickle is seeking damages.
Tickle initially filed a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission, but following Grover's refusal to attend sex and gender "re-education," the landmark case was advanced to the Federal Court of Australia.
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Giggle for Girls, which is currently under renovation, has been described as an "online refuge" for women, who can meet on the app and explore such areas as finding roommates, beauty, planning vacations, dating, and general conversation.
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Changes to Australia's Sex Discrimination Act in 2013 have made it illegal under federal law to discriminate against a person on the basis of gender identity, intersex status, or sexual orientation. Lawyers representing Giggle for Girls have argued that sex is a biological concept, rather than gender identity.
During a recent installment of Rogan's show, The Joe Rogan Experience, the powerhouse podcaster spoke with Spiked's chief political writer Brendan O'Neill about gender identity. O'Neill then brought up the Giggle for Girls' case.
"There's a case in Australia at the moment where a woman—a real woman, as we have to say nowadays—set up an app, and this was an app for women to get together and share information to communicate, to make friendships and so on," O'Neill said. "And a biological male who claims to be a woman tried to join the app and he was booted out."
Repeatedly referring to Tickle as a man, O'Neill went on to state that the complainant "is demanding his right to access this space."
While Rogan didn't share his own opinions on that particular case, Grover directed a comment to the broadcaster when she shared a clip of the discussion on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.
"As the 'real woman' involved in this case, @joerogan, I would be more than happy to speak to you about it in person," Grover wrote.
Rogan, who has admitted to being an infrequent user of social media, has yet to publicly respond to Grover's offer.
As of press time, the post has garnered more than 400,000 views. Newsweek has contacted representatives of Rogan and Grover via email for comment.
In a post from November pinned to the top of her X account, Grover has written that she's "being taken to federal court by a man who claims to be a woman because he wants to use a woman only space I created.
"There isn't a woman in the world who'd have to take me to court to use this woman only space. It takes a man for this case to exist."
The comments come as transgender rights and LGBTQ+ issues have remained a hot-button topic of conversation over the past several months. Several Republican-led states have sought to pass legislation banning gender-affirming medical care for minors and other conservatives have called for boycotts against companies supporting transgender individuals and their rights.
Bud Light's small promotional partnership with transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney last year led to the beer brand facing boycotts from detractors.
There has also been a wide-ranging discussion on whether transgender women should be allowed to compete in female sports categories. In July, a cycling race organizer, Monuments of Cycling, announced an updated gender classification policy after a transgender woman won a race. "Female: In the interest of protecting the parity of sports between women and men, racers who were born female may compete in the classification," it said in its new policy.
Similarly, in August, the International Powerlifting Federation announced a policy change for transgender athletes saying, "For a transgender athlete to compete in the sport of powerlifting at any level, he/she must declare before competing that he/she is a transgender athlete.
"If an athlete fails to declare that he/she is a transgender and competes that violation leads to Disqualification of the result obtained in that Competition with all resulting Consequences, including forfeiture of any medals, points and prizes."
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