In a landmark decision, an Australian court has ruled that the CEO of a female-only networking application intended as an “online refuge” for women committed “indirect gender identity discrimination” by rejecting the membership of a male who “identifies” as a woman.
Aussie women’s rights advocate Sall Grover has been subject to a lengthy litigation process over the past three years after trans-identified male Roxanne Tickle filed a discrimination complaint against her with the Australian Human Rights Commission. Tickle had been barred from using the female-only platform Giggle for Girls after Grover identified him as male based on a photo he submitted for during the membership application process.
While reading out the verdict and reasons for his decision at the Federal Court of Australia Friday morning, Justice Bromwich referred to Tickle with feminine pronouns.
“Roxanne Tickle is a transgender woman whose female sex is recognized by an official updated Queensland birth certificate… I have found that Ms. Tickle’s claim of direct gender identity discrimination fails but that her claim of indirect gender identity discrimination succeeds.”
Justice Bromwich then ordered Grover to pay Tickle $10,000 compensation, in addition to court costs up to $50,000, within 60 days. Grover told Reduxx she intends to appeal the decision within a month’s time.
The court case, known as Tickle v. Giggle, tested the meaning and scope of the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA), which was altered in 2013 under the government of prime minister Julia Gillard.
The revisions to the SDA made it unlawful under federal law to discriminate against a person on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status. The case has the potential to set a precedent in regards to whether a self-declared gender identity, or a legally fictitious recording of sex, will take priority over biological sex in the law.
Australian Human Rights Commission barrister Zelie Heger told the court that sex was no longer defined in the Sex Discrimination Act but that “importantly the Act recognises that a person’s sex is not limited to [being a man or a woman]”.
Tickle, a man who claims to be both intersex and transgender, claimed he attempted to join the female-only app in February 2021 but found that his membership was revoked in September that year. The Giggle app utilizes a screening process which uses AI to determine the sex of an applicant based on a selfie. Tickle was initially granted access to the female-only digital community by the AI.
During an interview with The Australian in April 2022, Grover explained that she took it upon herself to remove Tickle after seeing his photo and identifying him as male. “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 saw a man. The AI software had let them through, thereby making a mistake that I rectified.” Lawyers defending Grover said that she had been unaware that Tickle identified as transgender during the screening process.
Tickle was therefore was booted from the community, and then made several attempts to contact Grover to complain. He sent Grover multiple emails and called her at her home in October 2021. Tickle first filed the discrimination complaint with the with the Australian Human Rights Commission against Giggle creator and CEO Grover in December 2021.
“I believe that I am being discriminated against by being provided with extremely limited functionality of a smartphone app by the app provider compared to that of other users because I am a transgender woman,” Tickle wrote in the complaint. “I am legally permitted to identify as female… I believe that Giggle and Sall Grover have decided in error that I am male.”
Tickle bizarrely went on to compare Grover to a white supremacist group, saying, “I have been unable to locate a Facebook page or website for the Ku Klux Klan in Australia. Yet groups that favor discrimination against people based on their gender identity appear to have no need to hide their face.” He then went on to list several Australian women’s rights groups which are critical of males being permitted to identify as female, and referred to this position as “bigotry”.
Tickle had, in his first complaint, sought damages from Grover of up to $200,000, alleging that her “persistent misgendering”, or referring to him as male, had prompted “constant anxiety and occasional suicidal thoughts”. He also requested that Grover be made to “seek out education” regarding the concept of gender identity.
In July of 2022, Tickle, being unable to bear the costs of pursuing the matter further, filed a Notice of Discontinuance with the court, and the complaint was dropped. But five months later, Tickle filed another complaint, having received a $50,000 grant from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, and assistance from Barry Nilsson lawyers, who run a multimillion-dollar pro bono program.
In contrast, Grover was left with no other option than to crowdfund an incredible $500,000 in order to defend herself against the discrimination claim.
A statement provided with the appeal for donations highlights the importance of the ruling: “The decision by the Federal Court will have far-reaching implications, likely influencing not only the Australian legal system but also international law and policy regarding the intersection of gender identity and sex-based rights. It will serve as a crucial reference for future legal frameworks and discussions on sex discrimination and sex-based rights, and their direct conflict with gender-identity ideology worldwide.”
The argument made by Grover’s legal team was that Tickle was discriminated against on the basis of his sex, which is not prohibited, rather than on the basis of gender identity, as he claims. Justice Bromwich’s verdict stated that “these arguments failed” due to a “long history of cases decided by courts going back over thirty years” which he said established that, “in its ordinary meaning, sex is changeable.”
“In relation to the direct discrimination claim, the evidence did not establish that Ms Tickle was excluded from the Giggle app by reason of her gender identity, although it remains possible that this was the real, but unproven, reason,” Justice Bromwich told the court.
Justice Bromwich went on to say that “that indirect gender identity discrimination did take place” on the basis that “Tickle was excluded from the use of the Giggle app because she did not look sufficiently female according to the respondents.”
Throughout the court proceedings, Grover refused to refer to Tickle with feminine honorifics or pronouns. “I don’t think it’s kind to expect a woman to see a man as a woman,” she said at a hearing in May.
In addition to his attempts to access the female-only social networking app, Tickle has been playing field hockey on a women’s team. He has opposed proposed legislation which would have prohibited men from identifying into women’s sports, while boasting of using the women’s change rooms.
On his personal Instagram account, Tickle has also shared photos of his underwear, jokes about sex toys, and several cartoons drawn by Canadian transgender diaper fetishist Sophie Labelle. Recently, Tickle took to X to reveal that the youngest girl he competes with on the field hockey team is just 15 years old.
Grover, a former Hollywood screenwriter, created the Giggle app after experiencing “horrific” sexism in the industry, including both sexual harassment and assault.
Speaking with feminist author and activist Julie Bindel, Grover defended the right for women to gather without the presence of men. “The reasons for female-only spaces have not gone away. So we should not be in a position to have to justify them. We do not have to relive the trauma we have gone through at the hands of men every time we want to defend why we want to be away from them occasionally.”
Grover told Reduxx that in her perspective, gender identity ideology is used as a political tool against women. “Trans activism targets women unlike anything I have ever witnessed,” she said. “Once you have studied it, you cannot unsee that it is a toxic male supremacy movement, made up of many men who are not even trans-identifying, who simply hate women. The evidence is all there, in writing.”
News of the decision has been met with disappointment and outrage by women’s rights campaigners and politicians both nationally and abroad. Senator Claire Chandler, who has also been vocally opposed to gender identity policies for several years, expressed her dismay by saying, “The Sex Discrimination Act which is supposed to protect women and girls is now a tool to punish women trying to offer female-only spaces… This is a disgraceful and dangerous situation.”
Liberal Member of Parliament Moira Deeming, who was suspended from her own party for nine months after attending a women’s rights rally organized by UK campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen, and who has been fighting her own legal defamation battle, shared a supportive statement saying, “We’re with you all the way.”
Similarly, UK barrister Allison Bailey, who sued trans activist organization Stonewall for discrimination, warned, “This should be a wake-up call if one were needed. Gender identity legislation leaves women with no enforceable boundaries against any man.”
The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem, also weighed in on the verdict and promised to provide a more “detailed reaction” in the week to come. “Not only disappointed but also very concerned about this dystopian ruling on #TickleVGiggle , which distorts key concepts like sex and discrimination while dodging Australia’s international human rights obligations vis-à-vis women. If unchallenged, this decision would set a dangerous precedent.”
The Australian government has recently come under fire for censoring citizens critical of gender identity ideology. Multiple women have experienced retaliation for speaking out. Last year, Kirralie Smith was visited by New South Wales Police after speaking to media about Riley Dennis, a trans activist who had been the subject of mass complaint after injuring female players while competing in a women’s football league. Smith’s public Facebook page was also removed at the request of Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant.
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