The question of whether someone is a woman is not just biological but also social and psychological, a court heard on the first day of a landmark trans rights lawsuit.
Trans woman Roxanne Tickle is suing women-only social media platform Giggle for Girls after her access to the app was revoked in September 2021.
The app and its founder, Sall Grover, unlawfully discriminated on the basis of gender identity, Tickle’s lawyer Georgina Costello said at a hearing in the Federal Court in Sydney on Tuesday.
“The evidence will show that Ms. Tickle is a woman,” Ms. Costello said.
Trans woman Roxanne Tickle (pictured) is suing women-only social media platform Giggle for Girls after her access to the app was revoked in September 2021.
The app and its founder Sall Grover (pictured) unlawfully discriminated on the basis of gender identity, Tickle’s lawyer Georgina Costello told a hearing at the Federal Court in Sydney on Tuesday.
‘She perceives herself as a woman. She presents herself as a woman.
Giggle’s lawyer, Bridie Nolan, said the app was created to provide women with a safe space, free from “online male digital violence”.
Grover experienced sexual abuse during his time working as a screenwriter in Hollywood and underwent trauma therapy, the court was told.
The app offered a variety of ways for users to connect, including finding roommates and engaging socially or romantically.
“The vision was to create an online haven,” Ms Nolan said.
“It would be a place without harassment, explanations, damn photographs, harassment or aggression.”
Nolan argued that the app did not breach sex discrimination laws, which allow for “special measures aimed at achieving equality.”
The app created greater “equality between men and women in public life” by creating a safe space for women online, she said.
Therefore, excluding Ms Tickle, who Mr Nolan said was a man, would constitute a “special measure” under the laws, he said.
Costello called Giggle’s arguments “contrived after-the-fact justifications” for discrimination against transgender women.
Tickle was issued a birth certificate indicating she was female a year after undergoing gender affirmation surgery in October 2019.
Ms Costello told the court in her opening statement that “gender is not simply a biological issue, it is part social and part psychological.”
“Ms. Tickle was assigned the male gender at birth, but has changed to female and that fact is clear in this case,” he said.
Representatives from the Australian Human Rights Commission, including Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody, are assisting the court by making submissions on the “meaning, scope and validity of the relevant provisions of the Sex Discrimination Act”.
“The commissioner is not a party to the proceedings and has not made any statements as to whether Ms. Tickle was actually discriminated against,” the human rights commission said in a statement.
It is the first time that the Federal Court has heard a case alleging discrimination based on gender identity.
Rival protesters set up outside the Federal Court in Syndey during the hearing of the case on Tuesday.
Supporters of both sides gathered in front of the Federal Court for the start of the proceedings and protested a few meters away from each other.
Judge Robert Bromwich said the court would not tolerate any “intimidation or harassment” inside or outside the courtroom.
“I appreciate that the issues in this case give rise to deeply held opinions and emotions,” he said.
Some members of the public had demonstrated that they were “unable or unwilling to tolerate the existence of any views contrary to their own”, Judge Bromwich added.
In a statement submitted to the Australian Human Rights Commission in December 2021, before the Federal Court case was launched, Tickle outlined the alleged discrimination.
“I believe I am being discriminated against because the app provider provides me with extremely limited functionality of a smartphone app compared to other users because I am a transgender woman,” Ms. Tickle wrote.
“I am legally allowed to identify as a woman.”
The hearing continues.