The US Christian Anti-LGBTQ Hate Group Involved In The Giggle v Tickle Court Case

The highly publicised Giggle v Tickle appeal decision will be announced on Friday May 15th. In the lead up, it’s worth looking at the wealthy conservative Christian, anti-LGBTQ and anti-women’s rights organisation involved in the case who are backing Giggle.

Last year, the Giggle for Girls app and its founder Sall Grover sought to overturn a landmark 2024 finding that they discriminated against a transgender woman by removing her from the female-exclusive platform in September 2021. Throughout the legal battle, Giggle for Girls and Sall Grover have been backed by the international arm of a powerful group called the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

The ADF is a US-based conservative Christian legal advocacy organisation that campaigns against abortion access and LGBTQ rights, and has supported efforts to restrict reproductive healthcare and overturn Roe v Wade.

The organisation has been designated an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center over its history of anti-LGBTQ advocacy.

While ADF International is not recorded as a party, intervener, amicus curiae, or otherwise formally listed participant in Tickle v Giggle / Giggle for Girls Pty Ltd, they are on on record as “supporting” the Giggle for Girl’s defence, listed as a backer.

They frame the case as strategically significant beyond Australia, saying the decision “matters not just in Australia but also to the watching world.”

“ADF International supported Giggle’s defence on the basis that Australian law must uphold the truth of biological reality and in line with the protections for women enshrined in international human rights law,” wrote Robert Clarke, Director of Advocacy for ADF International.

What is less clear from public reporting is the exact form of ADF International’s involvement. Publicly available material does not specify whether they directly funded the litigation, along with the legal strategy and guidance they provided. The group is highly funded, with reports showing they received over $55 million in contributions in one year.

However we do know that Grover has extensively fundraised throughout the process, listing on the crowdfunding website that the funds “will be used exclusively to cover legal fees and associated costs incurred in the appeal proceedings, any subsequent hearings, and efforts necessary to ensure this important matter is fully and properly determined.”

It’s unclear how much they have raised over the years, but they note that any excess funds remaining at the conclusion of the case will be held on trust and donated to other litigation efforts and advocacy projects which support “sex-based rights, and constitutional legal challenges to ideological overreach.”

Star Observer has reached out to ADF International for confirmation of their role in the Giggle v Tickle case.

The ADF’s stance on women’s rights

The backing of ADF International is of particular interest considering the organised and systematic attacks on LGBTQ rights around the world, and because of Giggle for Girls’ insistence that the appeal is about “women standing up for sex-based rights”.

“This case is one of the most significant legal battles of our time concerning sex-based rights, constitutional overreach, and the erosion of protections for women, lesbians, and same-sex attracted people,” wrote Grover.

However, the ADF has consistently campaigned against rights for women, lesbians, and same-sex attracted people.

ADF has been one of the most influential anti-abortion legal organisations in the United States. It played a key role in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v Wade and removed the federal constitutional right to abortion.

ADF leaders have also publicly advocated for a society where abortion is illegal. In a 2026 statement, ADF CEO Kristen Waggoner said the organisation wanted to build an America where “abortion is not just illegal but unthinkable.”

Internationally, ADF International has campaigned against abortion rights in countries including Ireland, Poland, Sweden, Colombia and the UK.

The ADF’s stance on rights for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people 

The Alliance Defending Freedom is a US-based legal alliance of Christian attorneys with a history of funding and representing cases targeting LGBTQ+ people and protections for women in law.

It believes in Christian religious primacy, and fighting for “religious liberty” and “family values”.

“ADF is attempting to eradicate the separation of church and state and graft its version of conservative Christianity onto the legal profession and the culture at large through its legal strategies, the training of thousands of attorneys and its advocacy of policy changes at the state and federal levels,” explains the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Since the election of President Trump, ADF has become one of the most influential groups informing the administration’s attack on LGBTQ rights.

It has supported the re-criminalisation of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ+ adults in the US, and campaigned for criminalisation abroad. It believes that gay, lesbian, and bisexual people are more likely to engage in pedophilia, and claims that a “homosexual agenda” will destroy Christianity and society. It defends state-sanctioned sterilisation of trans people overseas.

The ADF has been around since 1994, and has been involved behind the scenes in many high profile legal cases. It will do things like file dozens of preemptive lawsuits in nine states over one year on behalf of Christian vendors who objected to same-sex marriage, or represent “conversion therapy” practitioners in lawsuits.

Recently they have worked on anti-trans law cases around the US and the world (with Giggle v Tickle as an example), including drafting the model “Student Privacy Act” legislation that led to a wave of “bathroom bills”.

ADF International, the organisation’s international arm, regularly advises and backs anti-LGBTQ organisations and lawsuits internationally.

They are also currently involved in another case on Australian soil, backing the South Australian mother who is planning to sue the Department of Education after she alleges her daughter was taught about incest, bestiality and queerness in a “respectful relationships” presentation last year. The bestiality and incest claims have been refuted.