Women-only app wrong to ban males claiming to be females, Australian court rules
Australia’s Full Court of the Federal Court ruled Friday that the founder of a women-only networking app directly discriminated against a trans-identified male by removing him from the platform, dismissing the founder’s appeal and awarding the complainant increased damages.
The court ruled that Sall Grover, founder of the female networking app Giggle for Girls, and the app itself engaged in “direct discrimination” against Roxanne Tickle, a man who identifies as a woman, according to ADF International, a legal organization that supported Grover’s case.
The ruling upgraded an August 2024 judgment of “indirect discrimination” following a counter-appeal by Tickle. Critics contend the ruling used a law designed to protect women to punish a woman for creating a space for women.
Direct discrimination, under Australian federal law, occurs when a person is treated less favorably because of a protected attribute. Indirect discrimination refers to a neutral policy or condition that disproportionately disadvantages a protected group. The court’s decision to accept Tickle’s counter-appeal changed the classification from the latter to the former.
The court awarded Tickle $20,000 AUD (about $14,300 USD) in damages, plus legal costs capped at $100,000 AUD (about $71,500 USD). The 2024 ruling previously ordered Giggle to pay Tickle $10,000 AUD (about $7,100) in compensation and cover his legal costs.
Tickle, who legally amended his birth certificate to list his sex as female, was removed from the Giggle for Girls app in September 2021. He filed a federal circuit and family court lawsuit in July 2022, but later dropped it over cost concerns after Grover indicated she would pursue the matter to the high court if necessary.
Tickle then refiled in federal court in late 2022.
The case centers on a 2013 amendment to Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act that added “gender identity” as a protected attribute and removed the statute’s definitions of “man” and “woman.”
The 2024 ruling stated that “sex is not confined to being a biological concept,” a formulation the Full Court did not disturb.
In its May 15 judgment, the court said that while the case raised issues on which community views differed, its task was limited to construing and applying the provisions of the Sex Discrimination Act. The court said the desirability of the law was not a matter it could consider.
Giggle’s legal team at the Feminist Legal Clinic argued in March 2022 that the decision to remove Tickle was unrelated to his gender identity and instead based on his appearance, which the lawyers said led the app to consider him male.
Grover appealed the 2024 ruling, arguing before the Full Court in December 2025 that the term “female” referred only to biological females. The Full Court rejected that argument and accepted Tickle’s counter-appeal.
Grover wrote on X that she was “absolutely devastated” and said men who identify as women have more rights than women in Australia.
ADF International, which backed Grover’s defense on the grounds that international human rights law recognizes the need for single-sex spaces, criticized the ruling.
Robert Clarke, the organization’s director of advocacy, said a law intended to protect women had been used to penalize a woman for creating a women’s space. He called on Parliament to legislate protections for single-sex spaces if the courts would not provide them.
