Giggle v Tickle (Appeal)
The Federal Court of Australia online file resource for theTickle v Giggle case can be found here; the online file for the Giggle v Tickle (Appeal) discussed below can be found here. Our report on the other Federal Court case about sex-based reality in the recent judgment in LAG v AHRC can be found here.
Sall Grover, the owner of the women-only app Giggle for Girls Pty Ltd, has lost her appeal to the Federal Court of Australia.Tickle won his cross-appeal.
The judgment was handed down on 15 May 2026 by a panel of three judges:
* Justice Melissa Ann Perry
* Justice Wendy Jane Abraham
* Justice Geoffrey Ross Kennett
The judgment was confined within the existing faulty Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) as amended in 2013, which incorporated gender identity as a characteristic, confused sex with gender, as does gender ideology that equates ‘gender’ with ‘sex,’ and replaced definitions of sex with nonsense definitions of gender based on a circuitous, subjective and stereotyped definition of ‘gender identity’.
The judgment declared that:
1. ” Sally Grover and Giggle for Girls Pty Ltd, engaged in unlawful direct discrimination against the respondent, Ms Roxanne Tickle, on the ground of her gender identity, contrary to s 22 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), when read with s 5B(1) of that Act, by:
(a) excluding Ms Tickle from access to the Giggle App on the basis of her gender-related appearance;
(b) refusing to restore Ms Tickle’s access to the Giggle App on the basis of her gender-related appearance; and
(c) thereby treating Ms Tickle, who is a transgender woman, less favourably than a person designated female at birth seeking access to the Giggle App.
2. Sall was to pay damages of “$20,000 within 60 days to Tickle” plus “costs of the appeal as agreed or assessed, up to a maximum of $50,000”.
3. Sall was also ordered to pay the costs of Tickle’s “cross-appeal as agreed or assessed, up to a maximum of $50,000”
Gender ideology has penetrated deeply within Australian law, making it difficult to retain a material understanding of binary sex in human biology. And the judgment confirmed the significant loss of understanding that occurred with the amendments to the SDA in 2013, when it noted:
““Sex” is not defined in the SDA. Originally, “man” was defined in s 4 as “a member of the male sex” and “woman” as “a member of the female sex”. These definitions were repealed by the Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Status) Act 2013 (Cth) (the 2013 Amending Act).”
By accepting and following the new version of the Sex Discrimination Act, the Federal Court– and its written judgment on this case–were required to use the language and concepts developed by gender identity activists that had been incorporated into the Act. Examples are: “Ms Tickle was assigned the male sex at the time of her birth,” “cisgender” and “intersex status.”
“Assigned sex” destabilises material reality of a biological fact into merely an opinion. Similarly, “cisgender” is a linguistic tool, in this case for undermining the concept of a sex binary; a woman becomes a-woman-who-is-not-transgender, reinforcing that there is another kind of woman (a better kind?): a transgender woman. And “intersex status” defines a person having features that are “neither wholly female nor wholly male” or a “combination of male and female” or “neither female nor male”.
“Intersex” individuals do comprise a wide range of variations in characteristics but not a spectrum of gender or sex. There are those with rare chromosomal variations (eg, Klinefelter syndrome in males with sex chromosomes XXY, 1:599 to 1000 males; and Turner syndrome in females with only one X chromosome, 1:2000 females) (NSW Centre for Genetic Education 2025). Note that they are still considered sexed according to the female/male binary. More prevalent are males born with hypospiades (incidence 1:150 of male babies). Hypospiades occcurs when the opening of the urethra is not located at the tip of the penis, but somewhere below, along the shaft of the penis, from which the urine is emitted. It is usually corrected by surgery (Royal Children’s Hospital 2018). Note that males with hypospiades are still considered sexed according to the female/male binary, and do not support the claim that there is a gender spectrum.
The term “intersex” is contested by other activists, who joined with medical experts in 2005 at a “consensus conference,” which produced a Consensus Statement declaring an alternative term for intersex: Disorders of Sex Development (DSD). The Consensus Statement can be seen as a linguistic tool for enrolling the medical establishment as allies, using their medical authority to legitimate activist goals and resolve dissent. But that strategic tool has been effective largely among health professionals only; many activists object to the effect of being medicalising and do not want to relinquish their intersex identity (Sandberg & Gardner 2022).
Another example of a consensus statement used as a political strategy by activists is the WPATH clinical guidelines for best practice in gender medicine. The guidelines came into disrepute following the release of leaked internal documents that showed the massive influence of activists, who had made “the world-leading transgender healthcare group … neither scientific nor advocating for ethical medical care” (Hughes 2024). Will a similar fate afflict the activist-aligned DSD Consensus Statement.
The legal terrain becomes ever more confused and politicised. We have traveled with the Giggle v Tickle (Appeal) judgment over the rainbow into the Land of Oz, sucked into a tornado where truth and material facts disappear. In their place is scattered a chaos of amplified opinion, concepts and language from the wishful and confused thinking of gender ideology. Added to the chaos are citations in the judgment referring to other judgments, ones that have also incorporated concepts and language from gender ideology, dressed up as evidential precedents. How did well-educated legal fraternity become so deluded?
Below are biographies of the threee judges. Perhaps they might help us better understand how their education and legal career path led them to become so confused about sex and gender.
Sall Grover has announced she will appeal to the High Court. But she may well not succeed unless the SDA is first amended to once again reflect the material reality of the human sexed body.
Our task is necessary and urgent: a campaign to educate our Federal Members of Parliament and the Australian public. Will you join us? Lesbian safety and culture depend on it.
Contact CoAL at admin@coal.org.au.)
References
Hughes, Mia 202), The WPATH Files. Pseudoscientific Surgical and Hormonal Experiments on Children, Adolescents, and Vulnerable Adults, Environmental Progress, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56a45d683b0be33df885def6/t/6602fa875978a01601858171/1711471262073/WPATH+Report+and+Files111.pdf.
NSW Centre for Genetic Education 2025, “Klinefelter Syndrome”, https://www.genetics.edu.au/SitePages/Klinefelter-Syndrome.aspx.
NSW Centre for Genetic Education 2025,”Turner syndrome,” https://www.genetics.edu.au/PDF/Turner_syndrome_fact_sheet-CGE.pdf.
Royal Children’s Hospital 2018, “Hypospadias,” https://www.rch.org.au/kidsinfo/fact_sheets/hypospadias/.
Sandberg, David E. & Gardner, Melissa 2022, “Differences/Disorders of Sex Development: Medical Conditions at the Intersection of Sex and Gender,” Annu Rev Clin Psychol., Feb Vol/ 2, No.18, pp.201–231. doi: 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-081219-101412, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10170864/#R97.
World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) 2022, “Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8,International Journal of Transgender Health, , Vol. 23, No. S1, S1–S258, https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/wijt21/23/su
Perry was appointed to the Federal Court of Australia on 23.9.13.
She has had a long and distinguished legal and academic career beginning with her First Class LLB degree gained at Adelaide University, including as a Reserve in the RAAF. She gained an LLM and PhD in public international law from Cambridge University
She was appointed a Deputy President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (now the Administrative Review Tribunal) on 20.7.18. On 11.10.18, she was commissioned in the office of Member of the Defence Force Discipline Appeal Tribunal, and was appointed Vice President of that Tribunal on 01.08.23. She was an additional judge of the Supreme Court of the ACT from 2014-2023.
Since 2011, Perry has served as an Officer with the Royal Australian Air Force, Legal Specialist Reserves, and was promoted to Air Commodore from 10.02.23. She is the Deputy Judge Advocate General, Air Force, on a part-time voluntary basis for five years from 10.02.23 until 09.02.28.
Perry holds an LLB (1st Class) from the University of Adelaide and was subsequently awarded an LLM and PhD in public international law from Cambridge University. Her doctorate on State succession, boundaries and territorial regimes was awarded the Cambridge Yorke Prize.
She practised at the Bar from 1992 to 2013, and was appointed Queen’s Counsel for South Australia in 2004. She was admitted to the NSW Bar in 1999 and to the Bar of England and Wales in 2012, joining Inner Temple.
Perry has been a Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at Cambridge University, and at ANU. She has also undertaken judicial fellowships at Flinders University and the ANU. Justice Perry is a Fellow and former Director of the Australian Academy of Law, and a member of the Advisory Committee to the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, University of NSW; and the Advisory Board, Centre for International and Public Law, ANU.
In addition, Justice Perry is a section-editor (administrative law) with the Australian Law Journal and was appointed as the Federal Court representative on the Judicial Council on Diversity and Inclusion (JCDI) (formerly the Judicial Council on Cultural Diversity (JCCD)) from 2014-2023. In her capacity as a member of the JCDI, Perry chaired the specialist committee, which prepared the first and second editions of the National Recommended Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals. Her Honour was also a member of the Editorial Working Group which reviewed Modern Slavery: Guidance for Australian Courts, published by the JCCD in 2021. Perry is the Patron for the NSW Chapter of the Hellenic Australian Lawyers Association.
Prior positions held by her on professional bodies include membership of the Law School Advisory Board, AdelaideUniversity (2006-2025); and the Advisory Board, UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation (2023-2024). Perry also held part-time membership of the Administrative Review Council (ARC) (2006-2013). The ARC was a statutory body responsible for supervision of the health of the federal administrative law system, reporting to the Commonwealth Attorney-General. Perry was also a member of the New South Wales Bar Association Human Rights Committee (2010-2013) and Equal Opportunity Committee (2011-2012); the Advisory Council to the Research Unit on Military Law and Ethics, Adelaide University ; the Australian Association of Constitutional Law, Secretary (2005-2008) and Council Member (1998-2005); the Law Council of Australia, Administrative Law Sub-committee (2005-2012) and Resources, Energy and Environmental Law Sub-committee (2008-2012); PALS@PILCH Advisory Committee (2009-2012); Legal Practitioners Education and Admission Council (SA) (2004-2006); Joint Chair, Constitutional Law Sub-Committee, Law Society of South Australia (2003-2004); and St Marks College, Adelaide, South Australia, Council member and member of the Education Committee (1995-2000).
Perry has served for many years as a mentor with the New South Wales Bar Association Junior Women’s Mentoring Scheme and the Sydney University Women’s Mentoring Program.
Abraham was appointed to the Federal Court on 07.05.19.
Location: Sydney.
Other Commissions and Appointments:
Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory – Additional Judge.
Supreme Court of Norfolk Island – Judge.
Abraham graduated in 1982 with LLB (Hons) from the University of Adelaide and was admitted to the bar in December 1982, and appointed Queen’s Counsel in December 1998.
From 1983 to May 2005 she practised with the South Australian Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and from 1995 as Associate Director. She was called to the New South Wales Bar in June 2005 and had a national appellate practice, primarily in criminal and quasi-criminal matters. From 2005 to 2009 she was retained full time to appear as national counsel for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. From 2009 until her appointment to the Court her Honour practised from 12 Wentworth/Selborne Chambers.
Other Commissions/Appointments:
Administrative Review Tribunal – Deputy President.
3. Geoffrey Ross Kennett
Kennett was appointed a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia on 19.12.22.
Location: Sydney.
Kennett has a background in administrative law, with a broad range of experience in different aspects of the law while at the Bar.
He was appointed a Deputy President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (now the Administrative Review Tribunal) on 25 May 2023.
Kennett graduated from the ANU with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in 1985, a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) in 1988 and a Master of Public Law in 1993. He has also studied at Sydney University, graduating with a Master of Law in 2013.
Justice Kennett commenced his career in the Australian Public Service, where he held various roles, including as counsel assisting the Solicitor-General of the Commonwealth, before he commenced practice at the NSW Bar in 1998. He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2010.
At the Bar, Kennett specialised in administrative, constitutional, customs, native title, taxation and competition and consumer law matters. Kennett served for several years as chair of the Administrative Law Committee of the Law Council of Australia and a member of its Constitutional Law Committee.
From March to December 2022 Kennett was a Resident Judge of the Supreme Court of the ACT. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.