Australia: Trans Woman Wins Giggle Discrimination Case

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Facts

  • An Australian court has ruled that the female-only app Giggle for Girls engaged in 'indirect gender discrimination' against a transgender woman when her account was removed in 2021.[1]
  • On Friday, Federal Court Justice Robert Bromwich ordered Giggle's founder, Sall Grover, to pay Roxanne Tickle $10K in legal fees but denied her request for a written apology.[2]
  • Tickle was born male but has been living as a female since 2017. A year before undergoing gender-reassignment surgery in 2019, she had her birth certificate reissued to reflect her new gender identity.[3][4]
  • In her lawsuit filed in December 2022, she sought $200K in damages, alleging direct and indirect gender identity discrimination. Bromwich didn't back the direct discrimination claim.[5]
  • Giggle, which uses gender recognition software to exclude men, said sex is a biological concept and admitted Tickle was discriminated against — but based on sex, not gender identity.[6]
  • However, the court ruled that Tickle had been excluded from the app for not looking 'sufficiently female' and, therefore, was indirectly discriminated against.[7]

Sources: [1]Al Jazeera, [2]Au, [3]Abc, [4]CNN, [5]Guardian (a), [6]BBC News and [7]Guardian (b).

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by The Conversation. This landmark case hinged on the definition of a 'woman' under Australian law. The court clarified that sex is changeable and not limited to birth assignment, rejecting arguments of immutability. This strengthens protections for transgender individuals, affirming their right to be recognized according to their gender identity.
  • Narrative B, as provided by BBC News. Roxanne Tickle is a biological male, and Giggle is a biological-female-only space. Letting in Tickle would compromise the platform's safety and integrity. While the court has ruled against the app, the fact remains that her exclusion was rooted in safeguarding a platform designed exclusively for biological women.

Predictions