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A trans woman has won a claim for indirect discrimination after being excluded from an app created for women to engage with each other in a single-sex space online. Roxanne Tickle lost access to the Australian ‘Giggle for Girls’ app after uploading, as a condition of membership, a photograph used by the business to screen users for eligibility. In Australia’s Federal Court, Giggle’s founder, Sall Grover, agreed that Tickle had been discriminated against on the grounds that the claimant was male, but said the single-sex purpose of the app made this lawful under Australian statute. Tickle, who was assigned male at birth but who has the legal status of a woman, asserted direct discrimination, which was not upheld. However, the judge, who said Australian case law established that sex was not immutable – meaning that males could become females – ruled that Giggle’s condition of uploading a photograph would tend to exclude men who identify as women by comparison with biological women, meaning Tickle’s indirect discrimination claim succeeded.
After the ruling, Tickle told the assembled media, “I brought my case to show trans people that you can be brave and you can stand up for yourself.”
The court’s decision prompted instant controversy at home and abroad. The UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, said: “not only disappointed but also very concerned about this dystopian ruling… which distorts key concepts like sex and discrimination while dodging Australia's international human rights obligations vis-à-vis women.” Australia’s shadow assistant minister for foreign affairs, Claire Chandler, said: “today’s judgement… confirms that women in Australia have no legal rights to single-sex spaces and services.”
Amnesty International called the ruling “a step forward in ensuring trans women are not discriminated against on the basis of their gender identity”.
Grover was ordered to pay Tickle’s legal costs and AUS$10,000 compensation. She has pledged to appeal.
