Female-only app creator hits back after losing landmark transgender court battle

The creator of a female-only app who lost a landmark court battle against a transgender woman has hit back, saying she will appeal the ruling.

The founder of a female-only app claims Australians are “at risk for being punished for having human instincts” after she lost a landmark court case against a transgender woman.

Sall Grover was ordered to pay $10,000 in damages after she was found to have indirectly discriminated against transgender woman Roxanne Tickle when she removed her from her app, Giggles for Girls.

AI software designed to filter out men had cleared Ms Tickle but Ms Grover removed her from the app herself after seeing her profile.

Ms Grover said that in her opinion she had not been found guilty because she believed Ms Tickle is male. (Nine)

On Friday, Federal Court Justice Robert Bromwich came to the conclusion that Ms Tickle was excluded from the app for not looking “sufficiently female”, and therefore was indirectly discriminated against.

Ms Grover has now hit back against the ruling saying she will appeal the judge’s decision.

“In my view I’ve not been found guilty of indirect discrimination against a woman because the whole crux of the case was that I don’t acknowledge that this male person, adult human male, is a woman,” she told A Current Affair.

“By the end we will have spent potentially around $1.2 million establishing that men are not women.

“And it just feels like decades, a century of women’s rights just goes out the window.

“You go, we’ve got the right to vote, fantastic who on earth would I vote for right now if they are not even going to say what a woman is?”

Ms Tickle underwent gender-affirming surgery in 2019 and is listed as female on her birth certificate.

In court, she sought more than $200,000 in damages for direct discrimination.

She also wanted a published written apology and the same access to the app as other female users.

She said that “persistent misgendering” by Ms Grover had prompted “constant anxiety and occasional suicidal thoughts”.

Ms Grover and the Giggle app argued there was no discrimination with claims Ms Tickle was a man.

In the end the judge did not agree that Ms Tickle had been directly discriminated against but ruled that she had been a victim of indirect discrimination.

Transgender woman Roxanne Tickle has won a gender identity case against a female-only platform in federal court. Picture: Instagram

Ms Tickle leaving court. (Jane Dempster)

Speaking outside the Federal Court after the decision, Ms Tickle spoke of the fallout from the “unlawful and discriminatory exclusion from the Giggle app”.

Ms Tickle opened up about her emotional wait for a decision on the case that she said had “stolen the last three years of my life”.

“I’ve been bursting into tears at different moments becuse I knew soon this would all be over,” she said.

“I brought my case to show trans people that you can be brave and that you can stand up for yourself.

“I know that I can now get on with the rest of my life.”

Ms Tickle said the ruling showed that “all women are protected from discrimination”.

In the interview it was put to Ms Grover that Ms Tickle believed she was the victim.

“I mean, he is entitled to whatever opinion he wants to have and I think in a civilised society I am entitled to disagree with him,” she said.

“It’s just an app,” she added.

“There are lots of apps out there that I would not be welcome on.

“Like I am not a gay man for example so gay male dating apps are not for me, that’s fine.

When she was asked why she was referring to Ms Tickle as a man, Ms Grover said: “Law is supposed to reflect reality and in reality, this person is a male.

“So, I mean, you can make a court something I suppose but you’re not going to make me believe it.

“To be punished for recognising biological sex I think puts all Australians at risk for being punished for having human instincts.”

Ms Grover said she did not accept the judge’s decision and said it had always been her “intention to appeal to the highest place that I can”.

“I have a daughter, she’s two,” Ms Grover added.

“I cannot send her out into the world where she has no rights.

“There is a next generation of little girls that we have to protect.”