Sall Grover has lost her appeal against the Federal Court decision in her case against Roxanne Tickle.
Grover was appealing the Full Federal Court decision that upheld the finding that the Giggle for Girls app and founder Sall Grover discriminated against Tickle, after the Full Court dismissed Grover’s appeal and upheld Tickle’s cross-appeal, finding two instances of direct discrimination.
In a judgement today, the court found: “There is no reason to doubt the Full Court’s construction…of the Sex Discrimination Act.”
“Special leave to appeal is refused with costs.”
According to Professor Paula Gerber from Monash University, this means the case is over.
“The High Court said there was ‘insufficient prospects of success,'” she told Gay Sydney Daily.
“In other words, the High Court thinks the arguments Sall Grover set out in her application for leave to appeal were weak, and the High Court was unlikely to be persuaded to overturn the Full Federal Court’s decision.”
However, this did not stop the Giggle founder from taking to X to voice her objection to the decision.
“I will never stop fighting. Men are not women,” she wrote.
Equality Australia said that after five-long years the matter was finally closed.
“This is a major win! Australian law has long recognised that a person’s legal sex is not limited to the sex they were assigned at birth,” they wrote on Instagram.
”Trans women, like all women, deserve to live safely, participate fully in society, and be treated with dignity and respect.”
The case began in 2022, when Tickle took Giggle and Grover to court, alleging they breached Commonwealth anti-discrimination laws.
In 2024, the Federal Court ruled in Tickle’s favour, awarding her $10,000 in compensation plus legal costs.
Grover subsequently lodged an appeal. In a cross-appeal, Tickle asked the court to find the discrimination against her was direct discrimination and to increase the damages awarded.
Tickle was initially given access to the app after an AI software screening tool designed to filter out male users approved her account. However, Grover personally removed her after seeing her profile in 2021.
The Full Federal Court earlier this year dismissed Grover’s appeal and upheld Tickle’s cross-appeal, finding there had been two instances of direct discrimination.
The court doubled the damages awarded to Tickle from $10,000 to $20,000.
According to reports from The Sydney Morning Herald and other outlets, the court found some of Grover’s conduct during the case, including repeatedly misgendering Tickle, was “gratuitous, disrespectful and unnecessary” and “aggravated the hurt suffered by Ms Tickle.”
