Australian judge orders $6,700 in compensation. Trans woman is banned from the social networking app “Giggle for Girls.”

A transgender woman in Australia was unlawfully discriminated against when she was excluded from a women-only social media community, a court ruled.

Roxanne Tickle, a transgender woman from New South Wales state, faced “indirect gender discrimination” when she was banned from the Giggle for Girls app in 2021 on the grounds that she was born male, Australia’s Supreme Court said on Friday.

Giggle for Girls founder Sall Grover had argued that women-only spaces should be allowed to restrict access to cisgender women, or those whose birth sex matches their gender identity.

But Judge Robert Bromwich found that the app discriminated against Tickle because its use was dependent on her having “the appearance of a cisgender woman.”

“It is not disputed or otherwise doubted that the reason for Ms Tickle’s exclusion was that she was perceived as male, that is, that she was perceived as male from birth. Indeed, that was the crux of the defendant’s case,” Bromwich said in his judgment.

“Nor do the defendants in these proceedings dispute that this condition has the effect of excluding not only men who are male at birth, but also transgender women, including transgender women who are legally considered female.”

Bromwich said Tickle is considered female under the law, as reflected in her updated birth certificate, and that it was outside his jurisdiction “to examine, let alone determine, the general nature of biological sex.”

“The science behind this evidence is not controversial as far as it goes. It’s just that there are bigger questions at stake in this case than biology,” he said.

Bromwich ordered Tickle to receive 10,000 Australian dollars (US$6,700) in compensation plus legal costs. He rejected Tickle’s request for an apology, saying it would be “pointless and inappropriate to demand an apology that is inevitably insincere”.

Tickle, who underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2019, told Australian National Broadcasting outside court she hoped the outcome would promote “healing.”

Grover says she developed the app after being abused by men on social media while working as a screenwriter in Hollywood. In a social media post, she said she “expected” the verdict.

“The fight for women’s rights continues,” she said on X.

The case, known as Tickle v Giggle, attracted considerable attention outside Australia, where an ongoing culture war rages over the definition of sex and gender.

LGBTQ activists argue that trans women should be treated the same as other women in traditionally segregated areas of life, such as locker rooms and sports.

So-called gender-critical feminists and other critics of trans activists argue that women need women-only spaces given the biological differences between the sexes.