Court upholds staggering fines for woman who outed males in women's soccer.

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If you refer to transgender people by their sex online, Australia might pass on compelling the platform to censor your speech, at least if posted from abroad. Say it Down Under, though, and you risk fines approaching six figures and a digital scarlet letter.

The New South Wales Supreme Court upheld fines of $95,000 Australian – roughly $66,000 U.S. – against women's sports activist Kirralie Smith and her group Binary Australia, as well as a court-written statement to be posted on their social media accounts for three months, for "transgender vilification" against male soccer players on women's teams.

That vilification consisted of outing the players as males, whom Football New South Wales allows to compete against women under a 2023 "gender diversity policy," and posting public materials about them from their teams and league.

By contrast, an administrative review board overruled eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant when she ordered X to block a post by Canadian gender-critical activist Chris Elston, which called an Australian female activist who identifies as a man a "woman."

In January and February 2023, Smith outed Stephanie Blanch as male in a Binary article, which included a photo of the player, and on social media by posting nameless photos of Blanch and identifying Blanch's team "on numerous occasions," sometimes linking her article, according to the ruling. It says Blanch has played on a women's teams since 2016.

In late March that year, Smith outed Riley Dennis as male "on a number of occasions" on social media, "including naming her by nominating where her name fell on a reproduced leaderboard of sporting results," the ruling says, always using female pronouns for the male athletes. It says Dennis has played on women's teams since 2022.

The court ordered Smith to pay Blanch and Dennis roughly $38,000 and $28,000 U.S., respectively, and post the judgment against Smith "on all social media pages and websites over which she has control, including Facebook, Instagram and X," the ruling says.

They must be "featured" and "pinned" posts on social media, and "published prominently" on Smith-controlled websites. The male athletes were reportedly born Nicholas and Justin, respectively, and YouTube personality Dennis's username still includes the athlete's so-called deadname, Justin.

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