Australian Court Rules Female-Only App Discriminated Against Transgender Woman, Awards $20,000 Damages

The Federal Court on Friday dismissed Sall Grover's appeal and upheld Roxanne Tickle's cross-appeal in a discrimination case over her removal from the women-only Giggle for Girls app. Justice Melissa Perry ruled that the app and its founder excluded the 57-year-old transgender woman on the basis of gender-related appearance.

The conduct amounted to direct discrimination under Australia's Sex Discrimination Act, the judge found.

Tickle was removed from the app in September 2021 after its verification technology judged her to appear male. She holds a birth certificate listing her as female and had undergone gender-affirming surgery and hormone treatments. Tickle's legal team told the court she identified as female with family, friends and colleagues, using women-assigned changing rooms and shopping in women's clothing shops.

The court awarded Tickle AU$20,000 in damages, increasing an earlier AU$10,000 amount, and ordered Grover to pay up to AU$100,000 in legal costs. Tickle had originally sought AU$200,000 in compensation, partly on the basis of aggravated damages. Grover, who founded the app in 2020, had 93,000 followers on social media and the court was told she persistently misgendered Tickle across hundreds of posts, generating an enormous amount of online abuse directed at her.

Giggle for Girls was founded in 2020 after Grover experienced online abuse from men while working as a screenwriter in Hollywood. Grover's legal team had argued the app was exempt from discrimination law because it was designed to create a safe space for women and sought to achieve substantial equality between men and women.

Lawyers for the Sex Discrimination Commissioner challenged that argument, saying such an interpretation could allow discriminatory conduct under the guise of a protective measure.

The court acknowledged the case touched on issues that divide public opinion but its role was solely to interpret and apply the existing law. Under the Sex Discrimination Act, discrimination on the grounds of gender identity, sexual orientation or intersex status is unlawful.

The Sex Discrimination Act was enacted three decades before a 2024 ruling in which a judge found that sex was changeable and non-binary.

GB News reported that the ruling is expected to have significant implications for other female-only spaces. Sall Grover vowed to take the case to the High Court. She has received public support from JK Rowling.

Grover stated that women fought for generations to have spaces free from male presence, whether in crisis shelters, prisons, sports or social networks. "That right has now been stripped away by an activist legal interpretation that compels women to accept men in female-only spaces and punishes them for objecting," Grover said.