Transgender woman wins groundbreaking ‘what is a woman’ case after she was kicked off a female-only app in Australia
Banning a transgender woman from a female-only app constituted discrimination, a judge has found in a landmark gender-identity case.
On Friday, the Full Court of the Federal Court delivered its ruling in an appeal brought by Sall Grover over a decision that found she discriminated against a transgender woman by excluding her from the female-only networking app because she appeared male.
The landmark judgement today, found Tickle was unlawfully discriminated against when she was removed from the women-only app because she is transgender.
The discrimination was ‘direct discrimination’ under Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act.
‘The Full Court has found that Giggle and Ms Grover both excluded Ms Tickle from the Giggle app and refused to readmit her on the basis of her gender-related appearance by reference to her selfie, and that this amounted to direct discrimination by reference to a characteristic that pertains to people of Ms Tickle’s gender identity as a transgender woman.’
The landmark finding could also have implications for other female-only spaces – and is defines the meaning of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in Australian law.
