Roxanne Tickle wins landmark 'who is a woman' case in Australia after being booted out of app

A federal court in Australia on Friday (Aug 23) ruled in favour of a transgender woman who was booted out of a women-only app, in a landmark case that looked into the crucial question of who is a woman. The judge ordered the Giggle app and its founder to pay $10,000 for gender discrimination suffered by Roxanne Tickle. 

"The indirect discrimination cases succeeded because Ms Tickle was excluded from the use of the Giggle app because she did not look sufficiently female according to the respondents," Justice Robert Bromwich said in the ruling. 

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"The acceptance that Ms Tickle is correctly described as a woman, reinforcing her gender-identity status for the purposes of this proceeding, and therefore for the purposes of bringing her present claim of gender identity discrimination, is legally unimpeachable," said the judge.

What is the Roxanne Tickle case?

Roxanne Tickle, who was born a man and identifies as a woman, was initially allowed to join the Giggle for Girls app, advertised as a safe space for women to communicate with other women. But she was blocked and her membership, given in February 2021, was revoked in September 2021. A long legal battle followed, during the course of which Giggle founder Sall Grover referred to Tickle as a man in court, social media posts and even during media appearances.

Tickle told the court that she had undergone gender-affirming surgery and hormone treatments, identified as a woman to family, friends and employers, and used women's change rooms and shops, SBS News reported. She also had a birth certificate listing her as female.

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The judge ruled that Tickle's ban amounted to "unlawful discrimination."

After the ruling, Tickle told reporters that it showed all women are protected from discrimination, adding, "I brought my case to show trans people that you can be brave and that you can stand up for yourself."

She said the last three years of her life were lost due to the case, adding, "I know that I can now get on with the rest of my life ... and put all of this horribleness behind me."

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"A small group of people have taken it upon themselves to declare that I am not who I know I am, and they have set about making my life miserable," Tickle said, adding, "This case, and the unlawful and discriminatory exclusion from the Giggle app, has stolen the last three years of my life."

"I've been bursting into tears at different moments because I knew soon this would all be over," she said.

Why is the 'who is a woman' case in Australia significant?

This is the first time that an Australian court entered into the debate on discrimination based on gender identity and the fundamental question of who is a woman.

In the judgement, Justice Bromwich said the defendants "considered sex to mean the sex of a person at birth, which they consider to be unchangeable," Australia Broadcasting Corporation said in a report.

"These arguments failed because the view propounded by the respondents conflicted with a long history of cases decided by courts going back over 30 years. Those cases establish that in its ordinary meaning, sex is changeable," he ruled.

Speaking after the hearing, which had seen heated exchanges, Giggle app founder Sall Grover said, "Unfortunately it is the judgement we anticipated and the fight for women's rights in Australia continues."

Grover was accused during the case of misgendering Tickle as a man in media interviews and social media posts to her 93,000 online followers, SBS reported.

(With inputs from agencies)