An Australian court has upheld a discrimination ruling against a female-only social media app and its founder for excluding a man who claims to be a woman, in a case with major implications for women’s spaces.
Roxanne Tickle, a biological male who claims that undergoing “sex change” surgery and hormone treatments made him a female, sued Giggle for Girls and CEO Sall Grover for gender identity discrimination in 2022 after being refused access to the app.
In August 2024 Mr Tickle was awarded $10,000 in compensation plus costs after Federal Court Justice Robert Bromwich found he was indirectly discriminated against. Ms Grover and Giggle launched an appeal, while Mr Tickle launched a cross-appeal seeking a finding of direct discrimination and more damages.
On Friday the full court of the Federal Court found in favour of Mr Tickle, ruling there were two instances of direct discrimination and awarded compensation of $20,000 plus limited court costs.
Justice Melissa Perry said Giggle and Ms Grover excluding Mr Tickle on the basis of a selfie, which revealed he was obviously a male despite his “gender-affirming” procedures “amounted to direct discrimination by reference to a characteristic that pertains to people of [Mr] Tickle’s gender identity”.
The judges also scolded Ms Grover for referring to Mr Tickle with biologically accurate male pronouns and laughing at a caricature of Mr Tickle, saying: “Some of her conduct was gratuitous, disrespectful and unnecessary to the conduct of her case. It did not advance her defence.”
Ms Grover told News Corp she was prepared to take the case to the High Court, but that she would prefer if politicians amended the Sex Discrimination Act, saying “they could fix this for free in a week”.
On X she wrote: “I am absolutely devastated. Men who claim to be women have more rights than actual women in Australia. It is women who are being discriminated against, not the men who claim to be us. But in a sense, nothing has changed: we will all wake up tomorrow and men will still not be women.”
Dr Reuben Kirkham, Director of the Free Speech Union of Australia, said the outcome meant women’s spaces had no legal protections.
“This decision leaves every operator of a women’s single-sex service in Australia without a workable legal defence,” he said.
“The special measures exemption is ineffective, the knowledge requirement has been abolished, and courts are now prepared to penalise the honest expression of a genuinely held belief about biological sex. Parliament created this problem and Parliament needs to fix it.
“As for damages, penalising an applicant for setting out their case and for involuntary laughter is most troubling.”
Ms Grover was supported by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who called the decision a “backwards step for women’s rights” and said she was “disgusted” with the outcome.
“It flies in the face of biological reality and strips rights from women,” she said.
“Women-only spaces are no longer protected and are no longer safe from transgender extremism. Where are the feminists who are happy to invoke women’s rights when it’s convenient but are conspicuously silent when transgender extremism stomps all over them with man-sized boots?
“Where are we going as a society when our courts won’t protect Australian women and can’t recognise there are only two genders: male and female?
“I condemn this appalling decision and I commend Sall Grover for refusing to give up the fight on behalf of Australian women everywhere. I hope she takes this to the High Court and I wish her every success in doing so.”
Header image: Left, Mr Tickle (Instagram). Right, Ms Grover (By Puck1234 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link).
