No laughing matter

Reproduced with the kind permission of The Irish Catholic which first published this on May 21st 2026

The outcome of the Giggle v Tickle court case in Australia last week is no laughing matter. Former film screenwriter Sall Grover set up the Giggle for Girls app for women to make contact with each other and it used a facial recognition feature to screen out any men who tried to join such as men who “identify” as lesbians and seek access to women. 

The Federal Court found that a man who calls himself Roxanne Tickle was unlawfully discriminated against on the basis of his “gender identity” as a woman and increased the damages awarded in a lower court and included legal costs.  This case began four years ago and could have been anticipated once the concept of "gender identity" was first protected under Australia's Sex Discrimination Act in 2013. 

Here in Ireland we have also seen cases arising from gender identity ideology such as in 2018 when a woman calling herself a "trans man" won €5,000 after a barber refused to provide her with a "short back and sides" explaining that "'we don’t cut ladies hair, I’m sorry'." The Workplace Relations Commission upheld her claim of discrimination under the 2000 Equal Status Act on the grounds of gender despite the fact that our Equal Status Act 2000 defines gender on the basis of sex, as at Section 3 (2) "(a) that one is male and the other is female (the 'gender ground'),". The Act also allows for exemptions from treating both sexes the same e.g. where privacy is an issue.  

Despite this there have been ongoing attempts to specifically protect “gender identity” in our equality legislation as in the 2020 Programme for Government. A public consultation only held after this found that the topic of gender attracted 84% of responses and that “Throughout the submissions, the proposal to specifically include gender identity within the Equality Acts was contentious,". 

However if activists have their way perhaps through the EU it may prove impossible for women and girls to have men or boys excluded from spaces in which privacy, dignity and indeed safety are needed.  We can already see it for example in the fact that the LGFA currently allows males to play with and against girls in gaelic football and to use their changing rooms. 

Irish involvement in the promotion of gender identity dates back at least to 2006 when the Yogyakarta Principles (YP) were created. Principle 31 of the later YP+10 requires States to “end the registration of the sex and gender of the person in identity documents such as birth certificates, identification cards, passports and driver licences, and as part of their legal personality”.  Yet although these principles are frequently cited e.g. by the Office of the Inspector of Prisons the Department of Foreign Affairs confirms 

“they are not an international treaty or otherwise binding on States.” 

Chiefly responsible for drafting the principles was rapporteur Michael O'Flaherty, former priest, ex-NUIG, now Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe and just before this Director of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency. The exotic sounding name arises because "…a distinguished group of international human rights experts met in Yogyakarta, Indonesia to outline a set of international principles relating to sexual orientation and gender identity." Another signatory was former President Mary Robinson. 

Prof Robert Wintemute, Professor of Human Rights Law at Kings College London who also signed has since expressed his regret that women's rights were not considered when the YP were being drafted.

"Admitting he ‘failed to consider’ that trans women still in possession of their male genitals would seek to access female-only spaces, Wintemute, who is gay, says: 'A key factor in my change of opinion has been listening to women.'" 

A new definition of "gender" has already been added to the Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act 2024 which states “’gender’ means the gender of a person or the gender which a person expresses as the person’s preferred gender or with which the person identifies and includes transgender and a gender other than those of male and female,”. The finding of “hatred” in a crime committed may now attract a lengthier prison sentence. There was pressure for “hate speech” to be included in the Act which wasn’t successful but if included in future legislation might result in a woman finding herself in court like Sall Grover for objecting to a man seeking to use provision for women. 

Curiously gender identity was not included in the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2025 currently before the Oireachtas. This drew criticism from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) which has been pushing for the inclusion of “gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics”. 

Clearly vigilance is needed to ensure that an individual’s belief in having a gender identity isn’t allowed to supplant the reality of one’s sex.