On May 15, 2026, the Federal Court in Australia upheld a landmark ruling delivered in 2024, which established that the women-only app Giggle for Girls had discriminated against a trans person by excluding her from the platform. Following the ruling, people in Australia are rallying behind the trans community as a national debate opened around the country’s Sex Discrimination Act.

Giggle v. Tickle was a three-year-long court case brought by Roxanne Tickle, a trans woman who sued the app Giggle for Girls for gender discrimination after being banned from the platform. The case resulted in a landmark ruling for trans rights in Australia when the judge ruled in favour of Tickle.

While the 1984 Sex Discrimination Act implemented protections for all citizens from harassment, unfair treatment and discrimination, regardless of gender, the 2024 ruling was the first case in Australian history to consider gender-based discrimination in regards to trans people.

During the case, Giggle for Girls CEO Sall Grover made comments about Tickle, such as calling her a “biological male”. Grover lost the case after it was ruled that gender identity was protected under the Sex Discrimination Act, and that while Tickle was not directly discriminated against, she was impeded for indirect discriminatory reasons.

Grover subsequently launched a bid to overturn the original 2024 ruling. However, her appeal was dismissed in full by the Federal Court in Australia, which upheld the verdict. In addition to strengthening the original finding, the court also found instances of direct discrimination, including the fact that Tickle wasn’t allowed to rejoin the platform after her initial removal. Therefore, the court increased damages from $10,000 to $20,000.

Following the verdict, a national debate around the Sex Discrimination Act has opened in Australia. A new collective named Not In Our Name, Women Australia (NION) was formed by a group of women wishing to stand in solidarity with the trans community.

As one of their first actions as a collective, the group has published an open letter and campaign asking Australian women to publicly sign and support the trans community and to defend the Sex Discrimination Act.

The NION campaign aims to showcase support for trans rights at a time of ongoing political debate around their rights to autonomy, especially given that several bills to amend the Sex Discrimination Act are being considered, which would remove protections for trans and non-binary people.

A NION spokesperson, Kylie Benton-Connell, stated: “The vast majority of women support trans people having the same rights and protections as everyone else, but a small minority are spreading fear and hate for their own political gain. We knew that something needed to be done.”

She continued, “These politicians and anti-trans groups are claiming to speak for all women to justify attacking trans rights. They are doing nothing to act on the real issues women face, like domestic violence, protecting access to abortion, and the funding of services”.

She concluded by saying, “What we want to do is empower women everywhere to use their voices and show their support for a society where all of us are treated with dignity and respect, and can live free from discrimination.”

NION are hoping that with the support of women across Australia, via signing the open letter, proposals that threaten the trans community can be stopped, and that “real issues” affecting all gender identities can be tackled.