Australian Federal Court Doubles Damages to AU$40,000 in Appeal Over Exclusion of Transgender Woman from Female-Only App

Australia's Federal Court on Friday dismissed an appeal by Giggle for Girls app founder Sall Grover and doubled the discrimination payout awarded to Roxanne Tickle to AU$40,000. The full court found that Grover had engaged in unlawful direct discrimination by removing Tickle, a transgender woman, from the app after spotting male facial features on her profile photo.

Tickle was awarded compensation of AU$20,000, equivalent to $14,000 or £11,000.

The three judges determined that the original judge had erred by not deeming Tickle's removal based on Grover's first visual review of the profile picture as direct discrimination. The earlier ruling had found only that Grover had indirectly discriminated against Tickle.

In Friday's judgement the court ruled that Grover treated Tickle less favourably than a person designated female at birth seeking access to the Giggle App.

Grover told the court that when she looked at Tickle's profile picture she decided Tickle was not a woman and removed the account. "I would have seen the photo and just gone, 'male', and blocked," Grover told the court during the initial hearing.

Grover said the process was the same as removing all males. Giggle's legal team argued throughout the original case that sex is a biological concept. They freely conceded that Tickle was discriminated against, but on the grounds of sex rather than gender identity.

Tickle downloaded the app in 2021 and passed the registration process which included a selfie. She used the app for about half a year before being blocked. The case, known as Tickle vs Giggle, is the first time a case of alleged gender identity discrimination has been heard by the Federal Court in Australia.

Grover founded the Giggle for Girls app in 2020 in response to online abuse by men during her time as a screenwriter in Hollywood. "I wanted to create a safe, women-only space in the palm of your hand," she said earlier. Under the Sex Discrimination Act it is illegal for providers of goods or services to discriminate against another person on the ground of a person's gender identity.

Shortly after Friday's ruling, Grover said she intended to appeal the decision in the High Court. BBC News reported that Roxanne Tickle is a biological male who identifies as a woman.