UN Official Pans Australian Court Decision to Allow Trans Person on Female-Only App

The U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Reem Alsalem, has criticised the outcome of an Australian court case ruling that a trans individual could access a female-only mobile app.
Sall Grover founded the app Giggle for Girls exclusively for female social interaction. However, when Roxanne Tickle—born a male but legally changed his sex—tried to join the app, Grover decided to block her.
The Federal Court found Grover had committed “indirect discrimination” in blocking Tickle, yet Justice Robert Bromwich also said his job was not to assess the intricacies of gender identity, but to determine if Tickle was legally discriminated against.
“Ms. Tickle is a legal female, as reflected in her updated birth certificate issued under Queensland law. The discrimination complained of by Ms. Tickle is on the basis of gender identity and not sex,” he wrote.
“The ruling demonstrates the concrete consequences that result when ‘gender identity’ is allowed to supplant ’sex’—and override women’s rights to female-only services and spaces.”
Alsalem said the court’s ruling concerned the Australian Sex Discrimination Act, but while the Act differentiates between the concepts of sex and gender identity, the distinction is abandoned in practice.
She pointed to the U.N. Human Rights Committee, which stated in 1989 that discrimination could be allowed if the criteria was “reasonable and objective” under the Covenant.
“I am also concerned that the court decision could make it potentially harder for women and girls to argue for proportionality, legitimacy, and necessity of female-only spaces in some circumstances,” she wrote.
Alsalem said the Sex Discrimination Act did allow for single sex services, but now it was unclear whether “Australian law is fully compatible with international obligations.”
Women’s Forum Australia CEO Rachael Wong, who has been an advocate for Grover, said the outcome revealed the problems with blurring biological sex and gender identity.
“The ruling demonstrates the concrete consequences that result when gender identity is allowed to supplant sex—and override women’s rights to female-only services and spaces,” she said.