The Federal Court of Australia has determined that the term “sex” transcends mere biological classification, which the legal advocacy group ADF International has called a flawed judgment. The court held that the female-only networking app Giggle indirectly discriminated against a man who identifies as a woman and goes by the name Roxanne Tickle by barring him from joining. In the case of Roxanne Tickle v. Giggle for Girls, the court awarded Tickle 10,000 AUD (roughly $6,800) in compensation for what it recognized as “indirect discrimination.”

Tickle, who has legally amended his birth certificate to identify as female, argued for access to spaces designated exclusively for women. Giggle’s defense, supported by ADF International, contended that women have a right to single-sex spaces, a principle extending to both physical and digital realms. However, the court dismissed this defense, stating that disqualification based on male sex constituted unlawful discrimination. The judgment states that “… sex is not confined to being a biological concept referring to whether a person at birth had male or female physical traits, nor confined to being a binary concept, limited to the male or female sex … ”

Katherine Deves, representing Giggle, expressed significant concern during the hearing, noting, “The stakes are high in this case. Women’s international human rights will be lost if ‘woman’ now includes any male who identifies as such. This decision matters not just in Australia but also to the watching world.”

Sall Grover, CEO of Giggle and respondent in the lawsuit, emphasized the original intent behind her app. “For decades, women’s movements have fought for the right to have female spaces in society. Yet today, the clock is being wound back.” Grover continued, “I designed my app to give women their own space to network. It is a legal fiction that Tickle is a woman. His birth certificate has been altered from male to female, but he is a biological man, and always will be. A woman’s-only app isn’t about discrimination. It’s about freedom of speech, belief, and association.”

Robert Clarke, director of Advocacy for ADF International, described the ruling as a severe setback for women’s rights. “In ruling that Tickle, a biological male, was a victim of discrimination when prevented from joining a woman’s app, the court has delivered an egregiously flawed judgment that removes protections for women. Contrary to what the judge held, sex is never changeable. The judgment is a severe setback for women and girls, failing to uphold the basic truth of biological reality — that men cannot become women. Tickle did not experience unjust discrimination, but was simply disqualified from membership on the Giggle app because he is not a woman.”

The court also found that section 5b of Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act, which prohibits discrimination on the ground of “gender identity,” aligns with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, despite the ICCPR only specifically prohibiting discrimination based on sex, not gender identity.

Biblical Connection: Genesis 1:27 states, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Satan has always tried to corrupt the things of God throughout history. God established mankind as male and female in the very beginning of creation. He even used the concept of marriage as a metaphor for the church’s relationship with Jesus. For centuries this biological fact has been accepted by every culture throughout the world. To declare that the distinctions between men and women are nonexistent or easily changeable is to spit in the face of our Creator.

PRAY - Pray that this unholy attack on the created order established by God will stop and sanity will return throughout the world.