{"id":118016,"date":"2026-05-15T14:17:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=118016"},"modified":"2026-05-15T14:17:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:17:55","slug":"australia-court-doubles-payout-for-trans-woman-in-landmark-discrimination-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=118016","title":{"rendered":"Australia court doubles payout for trans woman in landmark discrimination case"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 23 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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A Sydney court has doubled the discrimination payout for an Australian trans woman who was kicked off a female-only app.<\/p>\n

It comes almost two years after Roxanne Tickle successfully sued Sall Grover, founder of the Giggle for Girls app, for blocking her account on the grounds of gender identity.<\/p>\n

Grover lodged an appeal against that verdict, but on Friday, the Federal Court dismissed it and further found that Tickle was directly \u2013 rather than indirectly \u2013 discriminated against by Grover.<\/p>\n

Tickle was also awarded compensation of AU$20,000 ($14,000; \u00a311,000), double the original amount.<\/p>\n

Giggle\u2019s legal team argued throughout the original case that sex is a biological concept. They freely conceded that Tickle was discriminated against, but on the grounds of sex, rather than gender identity.<\/p>\n

Known as \u201cTickle vs Giggle\u201d, the years-long dispute is the first time a case of alleged gender identity discrimination has been heard by the Federal Court in Australia.<\/p>\n

During the original case, the court heard that Grover had removed Tickle from the app after spotting \u201cmale facial features\u201d on Tickle\u2019s profile photo.<\/p>\n

Grover told the court that when she looked at Tickle\u2019s profile picture, she decided Tickle was not a woman and removed the account, saying that the process was \u201cthe same as removing all males\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have seen the photo and just gone, \u2018male\u2019, and blocked,\u201d Grover told the court during the initial hearing.<\/p>\n

Under the country\u2019s Sex Discrimination Act, it is illegal for providers of goods or services to discriminate against another person on the ground of a person\u2019s gender identity.<\/p>\n

In Friday\u2019s Federal Court judgement, the full court found that Grover had engaged in unlawful direct discrimination, saying she had treated Tickle \u201cwho is a transgender woman, less favourably than a person designated female at birth seeking access to the Giggle App\u201d.<\/p>\n

The three judges also found that the original judge had erred by not deeming Tickle\u2019s removal from the app based on Grover\u2019s \u201cfirst visual review\u201d of the profile picture as direct discrimination.<\/p>\n

The three judges also found that the original judge had erred by not deeming Tickle\u2019s removal from the app based on Grover\u2019s \u201cfirst visual review\u201d of the profile picture as direct discrimination.<\/p>\n

The earlier ruling found that Grover had indirectly discriminated against Tickle.<\/p>\n

Tickle downloaded the app in 2021 and passed the registration process which included a selfie, and used the app for about half a year before being blocked.<\/p>\n

Grover founded the Giggle for Girls app in 2020 in response to online abuse by men during her time as a screenwriter in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to create a safe, women-only space in the palm of your hand,\u201d she said earlier.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Friday\u2019s ruling, Grover said she intended to appeal the decision in the High Court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A Sydney court has doubled the discrimination payout for an Australian trans woman who was kicked off a female-only app.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5745,14827,1910,10,9,6316],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australia","category-discrimination","category-international","category-politics","category-popular","category-woman"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}