Sall Grover, the transgender woman at the center of a high-profile sex discrimination case concerning her networking app Giggle for Girls, has broken her silence following a High Court decision that ruled against her. The court rejected Grover's bid for special leave to appeal a Federal Court finding that she had discriminated against transgender woman Roxanne Tickle when banning her from the female-only app in 2021.
The Federal Court had previously dismissed Grover's appeal, doubled the damages awarded to Tickle to $20,000, and ordered Grover to pay Tickle's legal costs, estimated up to $100,000. The High Court's decision on Thursday affirmed this ruling and awarded costs to Tickle.
Tickle, who was born male, identifies as female, and has undergone gender-affirming surgery and hormone treatment, spoke publicly about the nearly five-year legal battle. "It's been a relentlessly exhausting time, both physically and emotionally, for me and many others," Tickle stated. "I hope that yesterday's High Court special leave refusal provides clarity to the protections in law for transgender and gender diverse people in Australia, and perhaps provides a beacon of light to the rest of the world."
In response to the ruling, Grover indicated her intention to leave Australia and establish her business overseas. She expressed a lack of forgiveness for the government and respect for the judiciary, stating, "I won't live under an authoritarian nonsense ideology." Grover reiterated her commitment to her cause in a Facebook post, comparing her fight to a marathon runner and vowing to continue. "The fight isn't over," she wrote.
Meanwhile, Tickle expressed a desire for greater kindness and understanding, saying, "May we all learn that just being different is not grounds for you to be ridiculed, attacked, feared or hated, but that instead you are providing a little something extra to the world."
The case has divided public opinion in Australia. Some have criticized the High Court's decision, with one commenter stating, "This sets women's rights back 100 years." Another expressed concern that the ruling "erases girls and women, by supporting the idea that anyone can be one just because they say they are one."
Conversely, supporters of Tickle lauded the decision. One wrote, "Trans women have been treated as women by Australian law for decades without issue." Others pointed to what they described as a "highly funded and co-ordinated US Christian lobby-funded campaign to spread misinformation and strip trans people of their legal rights."
Grover's lawyers had argued that the Giggle for Girls app was exempt from discrimination law because its aim was to achieve substantial equality between men and women and create a "safe space" for women. The High Court, in a brief statement, found "no reason to doubt the Full Court's construction" and deemed the appeal to have "insufficient prospects of success." Grover, however, contested this, stating the decision implies Australians "must adhere to transgender ideology" or face punishment and that women's sex-based rights are not legally protected. She asserted that the only remaining recourse is for politicians to amend the law.