Ms Tickle filed an application to the Federal Circuit and Family Court in June last year but after Ms Grover tweeted she would raise constitutional issues in her defence and was willing to “take the matter all the way to the High Court” she discontinued it.
She is applying for the court to bring the application “out of time” after “subsequently receiving limited funding”.
Liberal senator Claire Chandler has claimed Ms Tickle’s appeal is a “huge warning bell for all Australian women who rely on female-only spaces.”
In April this year, Ms Grover told The Australian: “The person was removed from the Giggle app because they are male, no other reason. The removal was manual. I looked at the onboarding selfie and I saw a man. The AI software had let them through, thereby making a mistake that I rectified.” This comment was referred to in the Federal Court documents.
Matilda Alexander, who does not represent Ms Tickle but is a human rights lawyer at the non-profit LGBTI Legal Service, said Ms Tickle was “absolutely a woman and should be treated the same way as other women”.