The exclusion of a transgender woman from a women-only social media app was unlawful, according to a landmark Australian court ruling that is likely to have far-reaching implications for transgender rights.
Roxanne Tickle, a transgender woman from New South Wales, found her account on the social media app Giggle for Girls suspended after seven months despite initially being accepted. Ms Tickle sued the platform and its CEO Sall Grover for discrimination.
Federal Judge Robert Bromwich said Friday that the defendants defined “gender” as the immutable sex assigned to her at birth. Although Judge Bromwich found that Ms. Tickle did not face direct discrimination, he upheld the claim for indirect discrimination because she was required to appear as a cisgender woman when using the “Giggle for Girls” app.
He ordered the app to pay her £5,100 plus costs.
“These arguments failed because the view advocated by the defendants was contrary to a long history of cases decided by courts over 30 years ago. These … cases have shown that gender in its ordinary meaning is mutable,” he said.
Ms Tickle told the court that she has been living as a woman since 2017 and had her birth certificate reissued in 2018 to reflect her name and gender change. She underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2019.
“Until this incident, everyone treated me like a woman,” she said.
The case was significant because it was the first to address discrimination based on gender identity under the country’s Sex Discrimination Act. The case had sparked a debate in the country about what constitutes a woman under Australian law and whether gender is binary.
However, the app’s CEO, Ms Grover, denied any discriminatory behavior. Her lawyers invoked an exception in the law against gender discrimination and argued that the app was intended to promote substantive equality between men and women.
Ms Tickle joined Giggle for Girls in February 2021 and her access was revoked in September of the same year.
Ms Tickle’s legal counsel, Georgina Costello KC, argued that sex and gender are not binary and include not only biological but also psychological and social dimensions.
Ms Grovers’ lawyer, Bridie Nolan, argued that sex is biological and gender is a social construct, denying that Ms Tickle has the “psychology of a woman”, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
After the verdict, Ms Tickle told reporters the case had “stolen” three years of her life. “There is so much hate and bile against trans and gender diverse people simply because we are who we are.”
“Sometimes it’s hard to remember that not all people are like that.
“The ruling shows that all women are protected from discrimination.
“I brought my case to show transgender people that you can be brave and stand up for yourself,” she said.
