Judge rules in favour of Roxanne Tickle in landmark gender identity case

There has been a major update in a landmark gender identity case after a transgender woman was excluded from a female-only social media app.

A judge has ruled excluding transgender women from an app targeted at women is discriminatory in a major gender identity case.

Transgender woman Roxanne Tickle took the Giggle for Girls app and its founder Sall Grover to federal court after claiming she was excluded from the social media app.

Ms Tickle was reportedly denied access to the app in September 2021 due to her gender identity.

This is despite her birth certificate listing her as female.

Ms Tickle, who underwent gender-affirming surgery in 2019, sought a published written apology, damages, and the same access to the app as other female users, while defence for Ms Grover and the Giggle app argued there was no discrimination with claims Ms Tickle was a man.

However Federal Court Justice Robert Bromwich on Friday found Ms Grover and the Giggle app had “indirectly discriminated” against Ms Tickle, ordering Ms Grover and the Giggle app to pay $10,000 in legal fees.

Justice Bromwich found evidence did not back the direct discrimination claim, however came to the conclusion that Ms Tickle was excluded from the app for not looking “sufficiently female”, and therefore was indirectly discriminated against.

Roxanne Tickle has won a gender identity case against social media app Giggle for Girls Picture: Instagram

Sall Grover has been ordered to pay $10,000 in legal fees.

Ms Tickle, who underwent gender-affirming surgery in 2019, sought a published written apology, damages, and the same access to the app as other female users, while defence for Ms Grover and the Giggle app argued there was no discrimination with claims Ms Tickle was a man.

However Federal Court Justice Robert Bromwich on Friday found Ms Grover and the Giggle app had “indirectly discriminated” against Ms Tickle, ordering Ms Grover and the Giggle app to pay $10,000 in legal fees.

Justice Bromwich found evidence did not back the direct discrimination claim, however came to the conclusion that Ms Tickle was excluded from the app for not looking “sufficiently female”, and therefore was indirectly discriminated against.

Ms Tickle has underwent gender affirming surgery in 2019, and is listed as female on her birth certificate. Picture: Instagram

The Giggle app’s defence had previously argued the case was a matter of defining “What is a woman?”, while Ms Grover had previously said someone who transitions from male to female is not a woman.

However Justice Bromwich found “sex is changeable” in the landmark case.

Ms Grover will not need to give an apology as requested by Ms Tickle, with Justice Bromwich concluding any apology given would “be through clenched teeth and utterly devoid of sincerity”.

“She would be doing no more than saying she was sorry, but she would not in fact be sorry at all. She adheres to her sincerely held beliefs. It is not appropriate to order the giving of an apology in those circumstances and I therefore decline to do so,” the judgement states.

In terms of being reinstated as a user of the app, Justice Bromwich noted the app has already been shut down by Ms Grover, who “has expressed a clear intention not to reinstate it unless it is legal to exclude transgender women”.

“Accordingly, at present, Ms Tickle already has the same access as other female users, being none at all. If the Giggle App had been in operation, I could well have ordered reinstatement. In the circumstances, however, it is not appropriate to make an order that is incapable of being complied with,” he said.

Criteria for aggravated damages were also not met, however Ms Grover and the Giggle app have been ordered to pay $10,000 in legal costs.

Originally published as Judge rules in favour of Roxanne Tickle in landmark gender identity case