- In short: Transgender woman Roxanne Tickle is suing social media platform Giggle for Girls after she was excluded from the women-only app.
- She is alleging unlawful discrimination on the basis of gender identity while the app’s founder has denied she is a woman.
- What’s next? The hearing is expected to run for four days.
A transgender woman who was excluded from a women-only social media app should be awarded damages because the app’s founder has persistently denied she is a woman, a Sydney court has heard.
In a case before the Federal Court, Ms Tickle alleges unlawful discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
It is the first case alleging gender identity discrimination to be heard by the court since 2013 changes to the Sex Discrimination Act.
Ms Tickle’s counsel Georgina Costello KC told the court her client has a birth certificate stating her gender as female and has had gender affirming surgery.
She said the case law in respect of “sex, gender, man and woman” was clear that “sex and gender and man and woman are not binary categories … a person can change from one to another”.
It was not purely a biological question but partly psychological and partly social, Ms Costello said.
Barrister Bridie Nolan, representing the app and founder, said the app’s “vision” was for “a little corner of the internet where women from all over the world could have refuge away from males”.
Ms Nolan foreshadowed evidence from evolutionary biologist Colin Wright that “it was perfectly and objectively and scientifically reasonable for Ms Grover to identify [Ms Tickle] as male.”
Two small, opposing rallies gathered outside the Sydney court for the opening day.
“I appreciate the issues from this case give rise to strongly held-views and emotions,” Justice Robert Bromwich said.
He said he will deal with the case based on the issues arising from the pleadings and was not taking sides.
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Well, I certainly hope he’s ‘not taking sides’. What an odd statement for a judge to make. That is their job – to act without fear or favour, then to make a determination on ‘the issues arising from the pleadings’ and I would hope from the evidence and the submissions presented … and of course according to law.