Women are about to learn whether they have the right to their own spaces based on biological sex, or whether that right is overridden by someone’s self-identified gender, in a landmark court ruling set to define the meaning of “man” and “woman” in Australian law.
On Friday, the Full Court of the Federal Court will deliver its judgment in the appeal by Giggle app founder Sall Grover against a decision by judge Robert Bromwich that she indirectly discriminated against transgender woman Roxanne Tickle by rejecting her from the female-only networking app because she appeared to be a man.
The milestone decision, to be delivered by Justice Melissa Perry and streamed live on the court’s YouTube channel, will determine if sex is regarded under the Sex Discrimination Act as binary and immutable, as argued by Ms Grover, or non-binary and changeable, as claimed by Ms Tickle.
Ms Tickle’s position has been supported in court by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody, under the auspices of the Australian Human Rights Commission, and by LGBTIQ+ group Equality Australia.
Ms Grover’s crowd-funded case has been backed by women’s groups and by gay and lesbian groups who argue that a man who identifies as a woman and calls himself a lesbian is simply a heterosexual man who has no place at a lesbian event.
So high are the stakes that, whichever way the judges decide, the case is all but certain to be appealed to the High Court.
The case has attracted global attention, with author and women’s rights crusader JK Rowling expressing support for Ms Grover in a post on social media platform X.
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