HRLA is assisting the Australian Christian Lobby as it joins the federal court case of Giggle v Tickle.

ACL has applied to join as an “intervener” in the case after a decision in August last year found that “Giggle for Girls”, a networking application for women, discriminated against a man who identifies as a woman by denying him access to the app.

Giggle was ordered to pay $10,000 in compensation along with legal costs.

Concerningly, the decision further found that under the Sex Discrimination Act, sex is not binary and is changeable.

This denies biological and scientific reality and directly undermines the rights of women and girls to safe spaces.

Since that decision, Sall Grover, founder of the Giggle app, has appealed the decision to the Federal Court.

The court case and activism from transgender activists forced Ms Grover to close the app in 2022, and the financial and personal costs from the legal proceedings have been significant.

In December, the Australian Christian Lobby applied to join as an intervener in the case given its interest in advocating for sex-based rights for women.

The case also has serious ramifications for the rights of women, children, and parents, as well as broader freedom of speech and religious freedom rights.

Ms Grover recently emphasised the importance of this case when she told Sky News:

“When you’re fighting gender ideology like so many of us are, it is freedom of speech, freedom of belief and freedom of association … [this is] what we're actually fighting against. It’s not just me. It’s so many women.”

The Sex Discrimination Act was intended to protect women from discrimination. The original decision in this case undermines that intention by offering protections for men who want to identify as women and intrude on women-only spaces.

But as Ms Grover has stated, sex-based rights are only one facet of this case’s implications. The invention of a right for people to identify as the opposite sex with the protection of federal discrimination law has implications for freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom of religion.

This is why ACL is so concerned that this case be overturned on appeal, and why HRLA is assisting.

The first case management hearing takes place next week.