OPINION
There is a landmark case that will determine whether sex or gender identity takes precedence in law. Tickle v Giggle. Yes, it sounds like a comedy – but it’s actually a very serious and significant case that could have ramifications for New Zealand as to how we define the word ‘woman’.
TRANSCRIPT:
‘Woman’ (and biology) on trial in Australia
There is a landmark case that will determine whether sex or gender identity takes precedence in law. Tickle v Giggle. Yes, it sounds like a comedy or a romantic sitcom – but it’s actually a very serious and significant case that could have ramifications for New Zealand.
Roxanne Tickle, a transgender woman from NSW – so a biological male – is suing the women-only social media app Giggle for Girls after he was blocked from using the platform. The case means the Federal Court will decide ‘what a woman is’ in Australia.
So
Here’s a quick summary from The Project in Australia
Giggle was designed to help girls and women connect to make it easy to find friends or flatmates, travel companions or to swap stories about pregnancy, fashion or makeup.
Transgender woman Roxanne Tickle has taken Grover to court for allegedly discriminating against her on the basis of gender identity for barring her from the app because she was not biologically female.
Tickle’s lawyer, Georgina Costello, told the court in her opening statement that “gender is not merely a biological question, it is partly social and partly psychological”. “Ms Tickle was assigned male gender at birth but she has changed to being a woman and that fact is clear in this case,” she said.
Dear Roxanne – do you have a cervix? Can you get pregnant? Do you have xx chromosomes?
Here’s a little bit more of what Sall Grover – the creator of Giggle for Girls – said in an interview with The Spectator
Sall was also on Sky News on Monday
Here’s what Roxy said about why he wants to be a woman
Hey – some guys don’t like the smells or the sounds either!
Sall summed it up perfectly with a post on X, “At the end of the day, discrimination laws can be changed, definitions can be eliminated, hate speech laws can be introduced, and men will still not be women. There is literally nothing that can be done in reality to make them women. You’re gonna have to cope eventually, fellas.”
If you would like to support Sall Grover, you can at gigglecrowdfund.com although I note that she needed to raise half a million dollars for this – yes, defending women isn’t cheap – and she’s almost there. Awesome.
Interestingly the NZ media has been very silent on this case – despite its significance. Only 1News had a short written report – and that’s all I could find.
But now you know.
And if you haven’t already, sign our petition on WhatIsAWoman.nz to ensure that ‘woman’ is to be defined as ‘an adult human female’ in all our laws, public policies and regulations. Then NZ won’t have to go through the stupidity & giggle of this Australian case. Whatisawoman.nz
If I was the Australian judge, I would just say to Mr Tickle – man, you’re not a woman. Simple.