Giggle for Girls app founder Sall Grover is taking her fight against a Federal Court ruling to Australia’s highest court after losing a landmark discrimination case brought by biological male Roxanne Tickle.
The Federal Court ruled in May that Grover breached the Sex Discrimination Act by removing Tickle from her platform because of gender identity. Although an AI software test designed to filter out male users originally cleared access to Tickle, Grover personally removed Tickle’s profile in 2021 and denied further access.
The court found this amounted to direct discrimination under Section 22 of the Sex Discrimination Act, which prevents a person being discriminated against on the grounds of gender, when they are being provided goods and/or services. Grover was ordered to pay $20,000 in damages and $50,000 in court costs.
Grover says the case raises “fundamental questions” about the legal definition of “sex” and women’s rights to female-only spaces. “This case is not just about one app or one individual. It is about whether women in Australia still have the right to single-sex spaces based on biological sex. Basically we are going to court to establish reality in law, which is currently missing” she told Sky News.
The case also tests how Australia’s 1890s constitution handles modern interpretations of gender identity, with the court accepting that gender identity falls under “other status” in international human rights treaties.
RCR head of legal Katie Ashby-Koppens said, “The Court accepted that sex and gender identity are different concepts, yet held a sex-based distinction unlawful. Parliament’s removal of the definitions ‘male’ and ‘female’ from the Act in 2013, means that this is not a problem that courts will resolve but that parliament has to”.
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