The Full Court of the Federal Court has dismissed the appeal in Giggle v Tickle, upholding the finding that the women-only app Giggle unlawfully discriminated against Roxanne Tickle, a transgender-identifying man who tried to join the app as a woman.

The Court went further in the appeal than the original decision. It found “direct discrimination” on the ground of gender identity, not merely indirect discrimination, and increased damages to $20,000, and awarded legal costs capped at $100,000.

This is a troubling decision with consequences far beyond one app.

Giggle was created as a space for women. Its founder, Sall Grover, took the view that “woman” means adult human female. That view reflects reality and the ordinary understanding of sex.

Yet this decision has delivered legal punishment for expressing and acting on that truth.

This is a serious blow to freedom of speech and freedom of association. Australians should be free to form communities, services, and spaces around shared beliefs, including spaces which protect the dignity, privacy, safety, and interests of women and girls.

It is also a blow to women’s rights. Female-only spaces matter in sport, refuges, prisons, schools, change rooms, health services, and social networks. If the law cannot clearly say what a woman is, it cannot reliably protect women’s spaces.

As Neil Foster has observed, the Court failed to engage with the recent UK Supreme Court decision confirming that “sex” in discrimination law means biological sex. That omission matters. The UK has moved toward clarity. Australia has moved further into confusion.

The implications for religious freedom are also real. Many faith-based schools, charities, and organisations hold to the truth about the created reality of male and female. If the law treats the expression of those views as discriminatory, religious Australians will increasingly be forced to choose between conscience and compliance.

The Sex Discrimination Act urgently needs amendment. “Sex” should be restored to its biological meaning, and women and girls must be free to have spaces of their own.

Truth should not be unlawful. Freedom should not depend on denying reality.