Roxanne Tickle says Sall Grover must pay damages for misgendering her in 50 media interviews

The Australian

16 hours ago

Giggle app founder Sall Grover should have to pay hefty damages to trans woman Roxanne Tickle because she 'misgendered her' in media interviews, Ms Tickle's legal team has pleaded in a ­bombshell submission to the Federal Court.
In a submission which, if ­accepted, would have far-reaching implications for free speech, Ms Tickle's lawyers argued that Ms Grover's description of Ms Tickle as a man in at least 50 interviews should make her liable for 'significant' aggravated damages.
Ms Grover is appealing a decision by judge Robert Bromwich that she indirectly discriminated against Ms Tickle by rejecting her from the Giggle for Girls female-only networking app because she appeared to be a man.
Justice Bromwich had awarded $10,000 damages because Ms Grover had laughed in court at a satirical piece of merchandise – a scented candle – which appeared to mock Ms Tickle.
Ms Tickle is also appealing parts of Justice Bromwich's decision, asking for a finding of direct rather than indirect discrimination and that the damages be increased to at least $40,000. Ms Tickle had sought $200,000 in damages at the previous trial.
The Giggle v Tickle appeal has gained global attention, with author and prominent women's rights activist J.K. Rowling expressing support for Ms Grover in an overnight post on social media platform X.
Rowling retweeted a post by Ms Grover of The Australian's story revealing a submission by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner that trans women 'should have legal protections available to pregnant or potentially women'.
Ms Grover had captioned the post: 'This is how insane gender ideology is.'
Rowling also sent her support to Ms Grover.
'Good luck, Sall. May the best woman (haha) win x,' she wrote in a post on X.
On Tuesday, counsel for Ms Tickle, Briana Goding, said the $10,000 damages award was insufficient, in part because the beliefs Ms Grover held privately were also being made publicly and expressed in dozens of media interviews.
'There was evidence that Ms Grover had participated in some 50 interviews in relation to this case, and in each of those she used the male pronouns for Ms Tickle, and that on at least 10 occasions she referred to being scared or threatened or harassed by Ms Tickle,' Ms Goding said.
Ms Grover's conduct 'has at the very least been seriously ­aggravating and has caused Ms Tickle injured feelings', Ms Goding said. 'The aggravation and ­injured feelings have mounted up, blow by blow.'
Ms Goding said Justice Bromwich had found the satirical candle to be so offensive that he didn't repeat the content in his written judgment.
'However, it's our submission that His Honour ought to have gone beyond that single act of laughing in court and awarded ­aggravated damages for much broader conduct in the ­proceedings.
Those matters included the statement that Ms Tickle was a man, but should also include the fact that in her opening submissions Ms Grover and Giggle stated they 'do not know, and cannot admit, whether the applicant is a natural person capable of being sued in the name of Roxanne Tickle'.
'This is not just a delegitimising of gender, but a delegitimising of humanity,' Ms Goding said.
'There's further, the overall conduct of crowd funding for the case using the demeaning ­material, the promoting of others to purchase material from the Etsy store as well as the laughing in court,' Ms Goding said. Ms Grover has previously stated that she did not have any role in producing or selling the candle merchandise.
Ms Goding asked the appeal court to reject Justice Bromwich's finding that Ms Grover's views were genuinely held and bona fide because of the 'continued public misgendering and denial of gender identity of Ms Tickle'.
'This is not a case of asking anyone to change their opinions, it is not policing the opinions that someone can hold,' Ms Goding argued.
Given the purpose of the Sex Discrimination Act in eliminating gender identity discrimination, the 'continued misgendering of Ms Tickle' could not be considered bona fide, proper or justifiable, she said.
Earlier in the hearing, Ms Tickle's legal team had contested Ms Grover's claim that her rejection of Ms Tickle from the app was on the basis of her perceived sex – that she appeared to be a man – not because she was transgender.
'It was proved that not only did Giggle have a policy of excluding transgender women, they did ­exclude transgender women, and not only Ms Tickle,' said Georgina Costello KC, also ­appearing for Ms Tickle.
'Ms Grover has a policy that is not a secret. In fact, it's spoken about with some confidence and pride,' she said.
'Ms Tickle provided a selfie to the Giggle app in which she had a low-cut T-shirt on and a female haircut. She used the name Roxy, and that's important because they now say that they didn't know she was a transgender woman. We say that you shouldn't accept that evidence.
'The fact that (Ms Grover and Giggle) deny that they knew that Ms Tickle was a transgender woman when they excluded her from the app is not a defence to ­direct discrimination.'
Counsel for Ms Grover, Noel Hutley SC, noted in relation to the demand for additional damages that the trial judge had found that although the denial of her gender identity had upset Ms Tickle, he was unable to attribute responsibility to Ms Grover for her ­'finding this exhausting and draining'.
'Ms Tickle's evidence as to loss or damage is slight, if not minimal, and does not rise higher than a modest degree of hurt,' Justice Bromwich found. Politics
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