09-07-2025
Giggle CEO Sall Grover joins Sky News ahead of her challenge to transgender discrimination ruling in Federal Court
Giggle CEO Sall Grover is counting down the days until she can put her high-profile transgender discrimination case behind her as she gears up for her appeal hearing next month.
After the Federal Court found Ms Grover's app – Giggle for Girls – had 'indirectly discriminated' against a biological man, she sought to raise half a million dollars to lodge the appeal.
Transgender woman Roxanne Tickle is recognised as female under the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 2003 (Qld). She won the case in August last year after Justice Robert Bromwich found the complainant to have been victim of unlawful discrimination after being banned from the women-only app.
Ms Grover's appeal hearing will be held in the Full Court of Federal Court of Australia on August 4-7 and will be heard by Justice Melissa Perry, Justice Geoffrey Kennett, and Justice Wendy Abraham.
The businesswoman turned activist spoke to Sky News on Wednesday and shared her mixed feelings about the case, which included anger over the fact 'we even have to do this'.
'There's a lot of apprehension and anger and a bit of bitterness and also optimism and excitement that this will all finally be over soon, after three and a half years,' she said.
Ms Grover said she was angry that she had to go to court to fight for rights 'we already had' under the Sex Discrimination Act.
Ms Grover said the case has had an impact on the 'cultural zeitgeist', and thought female activists were now treated differently than they had been in the past.
'Once upon a time, even when this Tickle v. Giggle case first started, there was so much more censorship around this issue. People were getting cancelled and women were very much more demonised than we are being now,' she said.
'A lot of women's grassroots organisations have pushed and pushed and push to get this issue out there, and we've seen results in the US and the UK which has made even more people aware of what is going on. So the zeitgeist is definitely changing in our favour.'
Ms Grover said there was no ideology or belief system involved in her position.
'You can call yourself whatever you want, you can dress however you want, but reality has to come into play at some point, especially in the law.
'Your right as a man to wear a dress cannot override the rights of women to have women-only spaces, it's that simple.'
Ms Grover said the litigation was 'prohibitively expensive' and that she was crowdfunding her case which had been donated to from people all around the world.
The Giggle vs Tickle case was the first major decision of its kind since the Labor government amended the Sex Discrimination Act in 2013 which implemented protections on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status.
