Court rules ban on transgender people on women-only app wrong

The decision finding that Roxanne Tickle had suffered indirect discrimination was the first Federal Court decision relating to discrimination on the grounds of gender identity.

“The indirect discrimination claims were successful because Ms Tickle was excluded from using the Giggle app because she did not appear sufficiently feminine to the respondents,” said Judge Robert Bromwich.

In a ruling that could also have implications for other women-only spaces, Mr Justice Bromwich said that even if the Giggle app were to be deemed a specific measure to promote equality, it was not permitted to discriminate on the basis of gender identity.

He distinguished between discrimination based on gender identity and discrimination based on sex.

The settlement amount is a fraction of the $200,000 Ms Tickle was seeking, half of which was for aggravated damages.

The latter claim was based on an online campaign allegedly conducted against her by Ms. Grover, primarily on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Sall Grover, who founded the Giggle for Girls app, defends that claim. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)

Ms Tickle was blocked from the Giggle app in September 2021 because of her gender, despite her birth certificate showing she was female, the court heard during a series of often stormy hearings in April.

The court heard that Ms Grover created the Giggle app as a “safe space” for women to interact with each other, free from male patterns of online violence.

Giggle’s solicitor, Bridie Nolan, argued that because Ms Tickle is male, it was lawful to exclude her from the application under the Sex Discrimination Act.

She told Mr Justice Bromwich the court was faced with the impossible task of determining whether a person was a woman based on her “mental state” and having undergone surgery to remove her reproductive organs.

“This case is about who a woman is,” Ms. Nolan said.

The court heard that Ms Grover had persistently misgendered Ms Tickle in media interviews and in hundreds of posts about the case to her 93,000 online followers.

The Giggle for Girls app was created as a “safe space” for women to interact with each other. (Paul Braven/AAP PHOTOS)

Georgina Costello, Ms Tickle’s lawyer, said her client had faced a “huge” outpouring of online hate as a result of Ms Grover’s actions.

“The continued, deliberate misgendering of her cannot overshadow the fact that she is a woman,” Ms Costello argued.

Ms Costello told the court that Ms Tickle had undergone gender reassignment surgery and hormone treatment, identified as a woman with family, friends and at work, and used women’s changing rooms and stores in women’s clothing departments.

“Until now, everyone has treated me like a woman,” Mrs. Tickle said.

Friday’s decision can be appealed.