Ruling upheld after transgender woman excluded from female-only app

Sall Grover, centre, arrives at court ahead of the ruling. (ABC News: Liam Patrick) A court ruling that the exclusion of transgender woman Roxanne Tickle from a female-only app was discriminatory has been upheld. Roxanne Tickle has been awarded $20,000 in damages in the case against the Giggle for Girls app and its CEO Sall Grover. A judge previously ruled Ms Tickle was discriminated against due to her gender identity after her access to the social media platform was restricted in 2021. Link copiedShareShare articleA landmark Federal Court ruling that the exclusion of a transgender woman from a female-only app constituted gender identity discrimination has been upheld on appeal. In August 2024, Roxanne Tickle was awarded $10,000 in compensation plus court costs in a case against the Giggle for Girls app and its chief executive officer, Sall Grover. Ms Tickle accessed the social networking platform in 2021 after submitting a selfie which was assessed by artificial intelligence software designed to distinguish between the facial appearance of men and women. But her account was later restricted following a manual review. Justice Robert Bromwich previously found there was indirect gender identity discrimination due to "the imposed condition of needing to appear to be a cisgendered female", which had the effect of "disadvantaging transgender women who did not meet that condition". A claim of direct discrimination failed because it was not established that Ms Grover was aware of Ms Tickle's gender identity when Ms Tickle was blocked. Roxanne Tickle will now been awarded $20,000 in damages. (AAP: Bianca De Marchi) It was the first case to claim discrimination on the basis of gender identity since changes to the Sex Discrimination Act in 2013. During an appeal hearing last year, Ms Grover sought to overturn the ruling, while Ms Tickle launched a cross-appeal which aimed to strengthen it through a finding of direct discrimination and an increase in the damages to $40,000. The full court of the Federal Court — comprised of Justices Melissa Perry, Wendy Abraham and Geoffrey Kennett — on Friday found there were two instances of direct discrimination against Ms Tickle. That included when Giggle and Ms Grover refused to re-admit Ms Tickle. The court has reassessed damages and awarded $20,000 plus limited court costs. Ms Grover left the Federal Court without making any comment. The Giggle for Girls app was marketed as a platform exclusively for women to share experiences. (AAP) Ms Tickle has lived as a woman since about mid-2017, had her birth certificate reissued with a female sex marker and has undergone gender-affirming surgery, the court previously heard. Justice Bromwich said Ms Grover's argument that sex referred to a person's sex at birth conflicted with a "long history" of court decisions going back three decades which "establish that in its ordinary meaning, sex is changeable". Ms Grover's lawyers had attempted to invoke a carve out of discrimination law which exempts measures designed to achieve substantive equality between men and women, but that contention failed. The appeal judges found the primary judge was correct in his decision in relation to the special measures argument. The court heard the Giggle app was created to be a digital refuge for women and facilitate access to peer support, advice and community. The court heard Giggle was created to be a digital refuge for women. (ABC News: Liam Patrick) During the appeal, Ms Grover's lawyers argued in written submissions that the reference to "cisgendered" in the imposed condition to use the app was a term not grounded in any evidence. They argued Justice Bromwich had not identified a group which was disadvantaged by the condition, and his reasoning "impermissibly inferred group-based discrimination from an individual outcome". Ms Tickle's lawyers said the original decision should have included a finding of direct discrimination, including through the refusal to re-admit her to the app. They said the compensation sum was affected by legal error, in part because inadequate weight was given to the "significant, upsetting, exhausting and draining" impact of the discrimination on their client, and with regard to the prevailing community standards. Ms Tickle's lawyers sought $30,000 in general damages and at least $10,000 in aggravated damages.

Ruling upheld after transgender woman excluded from female-only app

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