A landmark Australian gender discrimination ruling has sided with a transgender woman who was removed from a social app due to her assigned sex at birth.
Giggle for Girls Case
A transgender woman in Australia won a discrimination case in the Australian Federal Courts on Friday after she was removed from a feminist-run social app called ‘Giggle for Girls.’
Gender Identity Discrimination
Roxanne Tickle sued the creators of the now-defunct app in 2022, accusing the app owners of gender identity discrimination for banning her in 2021 after they concluded that she was a ‘man.’
“Indirect” Discrimination
While her initial claim of direct gender identity discrimination was not held up, Justice Robert James Bromwich of the Federal Court of Australia found that she had been targeted by ‘indirect’ gender identity discrimination instead.
$10,000 AUD in Fines
It is a landmark ruling for Australia and now requires Giggle founder and CEO Sall Grover, also known as a screenwriter, to pay $10,000 Australian dollars ($6700 USD) in fines as well as legal costs.
Summary Judgment
“I will […] order the respondents to pay Ms Tickle compensation in the sum of $10,000 and to pay her costs, with a cap in respect of costs to do with the constitutional validity and statutory construction issues,” Bromwich wrote in his summary judgment.
Members Chosen By Assigned Sex at Birth
Giggle for Girls was an app marketed as a social group and “safe space” strictly for females, with assigned sex at birth being the only legitimate marker for whether an applicant could be considered a man or woman.
Facial Recognition Tech
The app employed facial recognition technology that could reportedly identify gender based on screenings of photographs.
Banned From the Site
Applicants who wanted to join the site had to be screened first, and Tickle’s photos were initially identified as female in early 2021. A few months later, Grover happened to see Tickle’s profile and personally banned the trans user from the site because she “considered her to be male.”
Lodging an Appeal
Grover, who has been described as a TERF – or trans-exclusionary radical feminist – is now planning to lodge an appeal with Australia’s High Court.
Raising Funds For Legal Efforts
The app creator is now seeking to raise more than half a million dollars to fund the effort and has blasted Australian lawmakers for failing to step in and change her plight “for free.”
“They Could Change This For Free”
“For the High Court, it will be anywhere between $500,000 to $800,000 to do that,” she told Sky News Australia. “And it should just be noted that, if legislators actually did their jobs and ensured that the law protected everybody, they could change this for free in like a week.”
App Will Return
While the courts have temporarily taken down Giggle for Girls, Grover plans to relaunch the platform and noted, “The fight for women’s rights continues,” in a later post on social media.
Pleased With the Outcome
Tickle is reportedly happy with the outcome, according to a statement she gave following the ruling, expressing her relief to “put this horribleness” behind her.
Protection For “All Women”
“I’m pleased by the outcome of my case and I hope it is healing for trans and gender-diverse people,” she said. “The ruling shows that all women are protected from discrimination.”
Court Behavior
It was said that Grover was reprimanded for misconduct during the trial after laughing at a “demeaning caricature” drawn of Tickle and refusing to refer to Tickle as a woman, both of which were used as further evidence of gender identity discrimination.
Request For Apology
Tickle also requested the judge to order an apology from Grover. However, Justice Bromwich refused on the grounds that it would be “utterly devoid of sincerity.”
Sex Discrimination Act Amendment
Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act was initially established in 1984 and amended in 2013 to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and intersex status.
First Ruling Since 2013
The Friday ruling is the first time the country’s federal courts have made a ruling based on a violation of this act since it was last modified.
“A Win For Transgender Women”
Many members of the Australian public, including Professor Paula Gerber of Monash University’s Faculty of Law, have praised the decision as a “win for transgender women in Australia.”
Sending a Message
“This case sends a clear message to all Australians that it is unlawful to treat transgender women differently from cisgender women,” Gerber told the New York Post. “It is not lawful to make decisions about whether a person is a woman based on how feminine they appear.”
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