Female-only app founder loses landmark transgender discrimination appeal
A transgender woman has won a landmark appeal after judges found she faced direct discrimination when she was removed from a women-only network app.
The Full Court of the Federal Court ruled in favor of transgender woman Roxanne Tickle, finding that women-only app founder Sall Grover twice directly discriminated against Ms Tickle when he chose to remove her from his networking app.
In August 2024, Ms Grover was ordered to pay $10,000 in damages after the Federal Court found that she indirectly discriminated against Ms Tickle when she removed her from the Giggles for Girls app, which was designed as a “safe, online space for women”.
Ms Tickle was granted access to the app following approval of a test of artificial intelligence software designed to filter out male users.
However, Ms. Grover personally removed him after seeing his profile in 2021.
Despite Ms. Tickle’s efforts to be readmitted to practice, she is rejected by Ms. Grover.
At the first hearing in 2024, Federal Court Judge Robert Bromwich found that Ms Grover had excluded Ms Tickle because she did not look “female enough” and had therefore indirectly discriminated against her.
Ms Grover appealed against the decision in October 2024, which was heard before judges Melissa Perry, Geoffrey Kennett and Wendy Abraham in August last year.
In her appeal, Ms Grover argued that sex was “binary and immutable” under the Sex Discrimination Act; Ms. Tickle, however, argued that sex is non-binary and variable.
Ms Grover argued that Judge Bromwich had failed to consider the wider context of the Sex Discrimination Act and claimed that the Giggle app’s women-only policy addressed disadvantages uniquely felt by women in the digital world and was therefore not discriminatory.
Ms. Tickle also challenged parts of the 2024 decision, seeking to find direct rather than indirect discrimination on the two accounts and to increase damages to at least $40,000.
He said Ms Grover had repeatedly misgendered him in the media and this had caused him serious distress.
Ms Tickle’s case was supported in court by Sex Discrimination commissioner Anna Cody and endorsed by the Australian Human Rights Commission and LGBTQI+ group Equality Australia.
Ms Grover’s case was crowdfunded with support from the Lesbian Action Group, which is currently fighting for the legal right to exclude trans women from their events.
On Friday, Justice Melissa Perry delivered the Full Court’s decision.
Setting aside Judge Bromwich’s original decision, Judge Perry ruled that Ms. Grover had directly discriminated against Ms. Tickle because of her “gender-related appearance” on two occasions: when Ms. Grover initially removed Ms. Tickle from the practice and when she refused to reinstate her at Ms. Tickle’s request.
Judge Perry, for the court, said Miss Grover had treated Miss Tickle “less favorably” than she would have done with a biological woman.
He said whether the app was designed “for the purpose of ensuring equality between men and women” was not important to Ms Tickle in deciding whether it was discriminatory.
Ms. Grover and Giggle App were ordered to pay Ms. Tickle higher damages totaling $20,000, in addition to appellate court costs and Ms. Tickle’s cross-appeal costs of up to $50,000.
It was decided that the damage should be paid within 60 days.
Ahead of the appeal in 2025, Harry Potter author JK Rowling has backed Ms Grover.
“Good luck Sall, may the best woman (haha) win x,” wrote the writer on X.
Ms Rowling has been criticized for her views on trans women, which have been linked to the Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) fringe movement.
He campaigned vigorously against transgender rights in the UK and supported anti-transgender actions in many countries.
At the 2024 hearing, the court was told Ms Tickle had presented as female since 2017 and had undertaken gender-affirming care in subsequent years.
Her birth certificate states her as female and is reissued in 2020.
