An Australian court ruled on Friday that removing a transgender woman from female-only social networking platform Giggle for Girls constituted discrimination, in a landmark decision on gender identity for the country. <\/p>\n
Roxanne Tickle in 2022 sued the Australian app and founder Sally Grover for unlawful gender identity discrimination in its services, saying Grover revoked Tickle\u2019s account after seeing her photo and \u201cconsidered her to be male.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Federal Court, Australia\u2019s second-highest, ordered Giggle for Girls to pay Tickle A$10,000 ($6,700) plus legal costs but declined to order the company to issue a written apology, which Tickle had sought. <\/p>\n
\u201cTickle\u2019s claim of direct gender identity discrimination fails, but her claim of indirect gender identity discrimination succeeds,\u201d Judge Robert Bromwich said. <\/p>\n
The case marks the first time that the Federal Court has made a ruling on gender identity discrimination since changes were made to the Sex Discrimination Act in 2013. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision is a great win for transgender women in Australia,\u201d said Professor Paula Gerber at Monash University\u2019s Faculty of Law. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis case sends a clear message to all Australians that it is unlawful to treat transgender women differently from cisgender women. It is not lawful to make decisions about whether a person is a woman based on how feminine they appear,\u201d Gerber said. <\/p>\n
Giggle for Girls was marketed as a \u201csafe space\u201d for women to discuss and share their experiences and had some 20,000 users in 2021, court filings show. It suspended operations in 2022 but is due to be relaunched soon, according to Grover. <\/p>\n
Bromwich said Giggle for Girls considered only sex at birth as being a valid basis on which a person may claim to be a man or woman. Tickle was assigned male sex at the time of birth but underwent gender-affirming surgery and Tickle\u2019s birth certificate was updated, he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, we got the judgement we anticipated. The fight for women\u2019s rights continues,\u201d Grover said in a post on X. <\/p>\n
Tickle called the verdict \u201chealing\u201d and said she had received hateful comments online and that merchandise was created specifically to mock her. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is so much hate and bile cast on trans and gender diverse people simply because of who we are,\u201d Australian media quoted her as saying outside the court. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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