The founder of a female-only app that was found to have discriminated against a transgender woman will lodge an expensive appeal in ‘s High Court.
Roxanne Tickle, 54, was awarded $10,000 in damages on Friday after the Federal Court found she had been the subject of unlawful discrimination.
Sall Grover, the founder of the app Giggle for Girls, was ordered to pay both the $10,000 in compensation and Ms Tickle’s legal fees.
Although Ms Tickle, who transitioned in 2017, is listed as a female on her birth certificate, the app’s founder Sall Grover argued that Ms Tickle did not meet the single-sex platform’s entry requirements because she is biologically male.
Justice Robert Bromwich found Giggle for Girls had ‘indirectly discriminated’ against Ms Tickle when she was banned from using the app in September 2021.
Ms Grover has now warned the legal saga is far from over as she announced plans to raise over half a million dollars to lodge an appeal in the High Court.
‘Ever since I got an n Human Rights commission complaint for gender identity discrimination, I’ve always known the case had the potential to go to the High Court,’ she told Sky News host Andrew Bolt on Monday.
‘For Federal Court it cost $500,000 to defend ourselves that men cannot be women and for the High Court it could be anywhere between $500,000 and $800,000.
‘It should just be noted that if legislators actually did their jobs and ensured that the law protected everybody, they could fix this for free in a week.
‘Instead, we will take it to the High Court and fight to ensure women have rights and make sure that no n is forced to believe the gender ideology nonsense that believes that men can be women and women can be men. It’s obviously not true.’
Ms Grover said she would be relying on donations from strangers to get her appeal over the line and that she had started a crowdfund online.
The CEO said that while she respected freedom of belief, the law should not be involved in someone’s ‘subjective identity of themselves’.
‘He’s got every right to think whatever he wants about himself, that should be covered under freedom of belief. But to legislate that… everybody else then has to believe that, because that’s essentially what is happening,’ she said.
‘Anyone can think whatever they want, they can have whatever identity that they want. But the moment you’re making other people to believe it, that’s where we’ve got a conflict.
‘It was never actually controversial until men started to claim to be women, for women only spaces.’
The $10,000 compensation amount is only a sliver of the $200,000 Ms Tickle had sought, half of which was based on aggravated damages.
The latter was based on an online campaign allegedly waged against her by Ms Grover largely on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Following the decision, Ms Grover wrote on X: ‘Unfortunately, we got the judgement we anticipated. The fight for women’s rights continues.’
After her victory, Ms Tickle said she was pleased by the outcome and hope it is ‘healing for trans and gender diverse people.’
‘Mostly I get to just live my life and be who I am. But 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,’ Ms Tickle said in a statement.
‘This case and the unlawful and discriminatory exclusion from the Giggle app has stolen the last three years of my life.
‘I have been targeted by hateful online commentary and degrading merchandise designed to ridicule and mock me.
‘The ruling shows that all women are protected from discrimination. I brought my case to show trans people that you can be brave, and you can stand up for yourself.
‘I know that I can now get on with the rest of my life and have a coffee down the road with my friends, play hockey with my team and put this horribleness behind me. ‘