Australia’s highest court has shut the door on a women-only app’s last fight to overturn a ruling that it broke anti-discrimination law by locking out a transgender woman.
Story Snapshot
- The High Court of Australia refused to hear Sall Grover’s final appeal in the Giggle for Girls case.
- The Federal Court had ordered the app to pay Roxanne Tickle $20,000, double the original amount.
- Judges found the women-only platform unlawfully excluded Tickle because of her gender identity.
- Grover says the ruling misreads the law and threatens single-sex spaces for women.
High Court Ends Years-Long Legal Fight
On September 11, 2026, Australia’s High Court denied Sall Grover permission to challenge the ruling against her app, Giggle for Girls. That decision closes out a legal battle that began in 2021, when Roxanne Tickle, a transgender woman, was removed from the platform after signing up.
The High Court’s refusal means lower court rulings now stand as final. Grover had hoped the country’s top court would step in and reverse findings that her app broke Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act. Instead, the case ends exactly where the Federal Court left it in May 2026.
How the Courts Ruled Over Time
The Federal Court first ruled on the case in August 2024. The judge said Tickle’s claim of direct discrimination failed, but her claim of indirect discrimination succeeded. The app required users to look like cisgender women, and that rule ended up shutting out trans women like Tickle. The court ordered $10,000 in damages.
Giggle for Girls appealed that ruling. In May 2026, the Full Federal Court upheld the finding that the app broke the law and doubled the payout to $20,000. Some reporting on that appeal decision says the higher court went further than the first judge, ruling the app directly discriminated against Tickle rather than just indirectly.
Founder Pushes Back, Others Weigh In
Grover has rejected the rulings from the start. After the first decision, she said the court misread the Sex Discrimination Act, ignored evidence, and failed to protect “single-sex spaces that are vital” for women’s safety and dignity. She has framed her app as a tool for protecting women, not excluding them unfairly.
Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner backed the court’s findings, saying Tickle “was excluded from the app based on her appearance, and that this was discrimination on the ground of her gender identity.” Not everyone agreed. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women publicly criticized the 2024 ruling, saying it eroded protections for female-only spaces.
Australia doesn't know what a woman is.
Giggle for Girls denied appeal with Australian High Court after trans male Roxy Tickle sued over discriminationhttps://t.co/P8pmF5j4zQ
— Libby Emmons (@libbyemmons) September 11, 2026
Why the Ruling Reaches Beyond One App
Legal records describe this as the first Australian case to test 2013 protections in the Sex Discrimination Act that cover gender identity. That makes the outcome bigger than one app or one user. It sets a legal marker for how courts will judge access rules at any service that claims to be for women only, from apps to shelters to sports leagues.
The fight highlights a tension many Australians and Americans recognize: rules written to protect one group can end up clashing with protections owed to another. Courts sided with Tickle on the legal test they were asked to apply. Grover and her supporters argue that test failed to weigh what they see as women’s basic right to spaces free of biological males, regardless of gender identity.
With the High Court’s refusal to hear further appeal, the legal question in Australia is now settled for this case. The larger argument over who counts as a woman under the law, and where the line sits between anti-discrimination protections and single-sex spaces, is far from over.
Sources:
humanevents.com, bbc.com, fedcourt.gov.au, equalityaustralia.org.au, gratafund.org.au, theguardian.com, adfinternational.org