Tickle V Giggle Appeal To Run For Four Days In Federal Court This Week
Image: Image: AAP
The landmark Tickle V Giggle transgender discrimination case returns to court this week for a four day appeal before Australia’s Full Federal Court .
In August 2024, transgender woman Roxanne Tickle won her case against the ‘cisgender women only dating app’ Giggle. She was awarded $10,000 plus costs after suing Giggle for discrimination based on her gender.
Lesbian Action Group to intervene with Giggle Vs Tickle appeal
Giggle CEO, Sall Grover launched an appeal against the decision in October 2024.
The Lesbian Action Group applied to the court to intervene and was granted approval to take part in the highly publicised Giggle Vs Tickle case.
The Lesbian Action Group is a Melbourne based group of women who has notoriously fought against the trans community, particularly in their quest for single sex spaces that specifically exclude trans women.
Most notably the group pursued an application with the Australian Human Rights Commission for an exemption to Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act to hold public events exclusively for lesbians who were born female, excluding transgender and bisexual women.
This application was denied in 2023.
The group made claims that the Victorian Pride Centre was discriminating against them after their application to hold a lesbian-only event at the centre was rejected. They named the Centre as part of their application to the Australian Human Rights Commission for the exemption.
In a statement released in June of this year the group expressed their enthusiasm to assist with the Giggle V Tickle appeal.
“This intervention marks a significant opportunity for LAG to advocate for the rights of lesbians and women to maintain single-sex spaces and events” they said in their statement.
Giggle founder Sall Grover welcomed the assistance from the group, “I am thrilled that Lesbian Action Group have been granted leave to intervene in this critical case,” she said.
“Lesbians and women deserve the right to freely associate in spaces that respect our experiences and biological reality. This case is about ensuring that the law upholds fairness, dignity, safety and reality for women and lesbians. No man is a woman or a lesbian.”
However the Lesbian Action Group and Grover have yet to state what the intervention and assistance from the group will be in the appeal of the case.
The Tickle v Giggle case began in April 2024 after transgender woman Roxanne Tickle launched legal action against the app Giggle For Girls and founder Sall Grover, alleging she had been banned from the app due to being deemed a male by Grover.
After a highly publicised court case, the ruling ultimately fell in favour of Tickle with the judge ruling that she had been discriminated against based on her gender awarding her $10,000 in damages.
Grover launched an appeal on October 2024, in response Roxanne Tickle lodged a cross appeal in February 2025 seeking an increase to the damages already awarded to her.
The appeal is set to commence in the Federal court on Monday August 4 for four days.
