She moved to Seattle about five years ago, but it wasn’t until 2009 that I first noticed her. She was giving hell to a man named Gary Randall, president of the Faith and Freedom Network, who was drumming up an anti-gay campaign in Washington State. She outed his finances. She outed his associates. She outed his history of mounting homophobic campaigns while paying himself a lavish salary.
The hits kept coming. Blogging under the pseudonym “Lurleen” at Pam’s House Blend, she screamed bloody murder when backers of an anti-gay referendum reported only their donors’ initials, instead of the full names required by state disclosure rules. She went to their anti-gay rallies, took photos, blogged it all.
“I was pretty sure that the opposition was reading what I was writing,” Lurleen says, explaining her decision not to write under her real name online. “I decided early on to use a pseudonym or pen name, because I wanted to feel out the territory first.”
In midsummer 2009, when a battle over domestic-partnership rights was raging in Washington, Randall linked to a list of gay politicians on a blog that advised readers to use the list “first as a precursor for additional investigation before taking ‘direct action.’ ;-)”
“This was sort of like skinhead territory,” Lurleen reflects. “If he thought it was okay to link to something like that, I felt that maybe I had made a wise decision to keep my identity quiet. Nobody else was poking the opposition daily like I was.”
She succeeded in keeping her identity secret for years, until recently. On January 19, Randall hit back against his nemesis, writing on his blog: “‘Lurleen’ is Laurel Ramseyer.”
How did he find her real name? It wasn’t with help from like-minded agitators on the right. Instead, it was with help from gay and transgender bloggers, who revealed Lurleen’s identity earlier this year. Leading the charge: transgender activist Katrina Rose, who announced on ENDAblog, “I’m outing her here as having committed an egregious act of transphobic cyber-bullying…”
The “egregious act”?
Ramseyer once deleted the profile of a commenter who alluded to her true identity in a comment thread on Pam’s House Blend, wiping that commenter’s entire history off the website. Ramseyer says it was an accident—she was just trying to delete the one comment.
But the bigger, underlying motivation seems to be a belief that Ramseyer was complicit in a massive gay conspiracy.
“Gay Inc.,” as some LGBT bloggers call it, is ostensibly a well-heeled national network willing to fight for marriage rights for homosexuals while leaving behind—and even rejecting—equal rights for transgender people. Rose wrote that people involved with “Gay Inc.” are willing to “bypass trans equality and move on to the non-trans issue of gay marriage.”
And what, allegedly, links Ramseyer to “Gay Inc.”?
In addition to her blogging, Ramseyer had been volunteering for Equal Rights Washington (ERW), a statewide LGBT equality group that was working to uphold the domestic-partnership law (it successfully defeated Randall’s anti-gay campaign in November 2009). After that win, Ramseyer became ERW’s volunteer new-media director. This, apparently, made her a tool.
Regardless of whether it was paranoid conspiracy theories or long-standing grudges that motivated her outing, being exposed was probably inevitable, says Kelly McBride, a senior faculty member of the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank. “The hacking community can almost always figure out who you are,” McBride says. “There are some people who have valuable contributions who need to be anonymous, but I see most people abusing anonymity to just be mean.”
In this case, though, Ramseyer wasn’t using internet anonymity in order to be mean. She was using it in order to protect herself while she aggressively fought for gay rights. “I never in my wildest dreams expected a small group of people in the LGBT community to do something nasty to me,” Ramseyer says. “I always expected it to come from the opposition.” 
I wonder if Katrina Rose felt like her trans issues were addressed after outing someone like this. Her powerlessness made her strike out at the wrong person. Lame.
I like the idea of this Gay, Inc. How do we support their work?
Kat Rose in league with Gary Randall? Oh, stunning. I’m shocked, simply shocked.
Katrina Rose, Ashley Love and the rest of their ilk are a detriment to the trans community and they do NOT speak for us. I denounce this action against my friend Lurleen and am calling them out for endangering someone who has only shown to be nothing but a staunch ally for the trans community. My gloves are off, ladies, and I am sick of you assholes harming my community.
What’s Katrina Rose’s real name?
Oh, and Katrina understands NOTHING about marriage equality. It most certainly IS a trans issue, as much as it is a gay issue. Just ask the transwoman denied survivor’s benefits in Texas. And our allies issues ARE our issues, if we are truly allies.
Getting legally married in January made me even more committed to marriage equality for everyone.
@5, it is Katrina. Don’t go there.
How is gay marriage a non-trans issue? If you legally change your sex, that could limit your marriage rights to the wrong half of the population. You’d think more than anyone, transgender people would want gender to be irrelevant for marriage.
This is really sad. Laurel is one of the greatest assets to our community and was a secret weapon during 71. She dragged the hypocrites kicking and screaming out into the light by exposing their wife-beating and tax-evading secrets. And now someone within the larger national community outs her out of some crazy opinion?? It’s just dumb, seriously idiotic. I know Katrina Rose will read this, so let me say here – congratulations – your dumb notions have hurt someone who is a tremendous asset to the LGBT community. You should be ashamed of yourself. Sad and pathetic.
Where is the rest of this story? Seems like there is a lot missing, like the other side, what comments she deleted, tons more details. I’m not saying that what you wrote was wrong, just that I got to the end of the article and I don’t really feel like I have the whole story. You’re not being a Credulous Hack™ are you?
@2
Yeah, are they on the NASDAQ? I think it’s a good investment, their stock seems to be rising.
I agree with @8 re: marriage equality being an issue that effects everyone, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. The basis of marriage equality is two consenting adults. Period.
It seems that Ms. Rose is upset that organizations such as HRC and ERW supported the ENDA legislation that did not include “gender identity”, after it was clear that ENDA could not pass with that language included. The whole “all or nothing” approach, and accusation of capitulation because a group got as much as possible at the time.
Which is unfortunate.
ERW never supported a non-inclusive ENDA.
@13 – I should say “allegedly supported” or “were perceived to have supported by Ms. Rose”. Thanks for the clarification!
@Frank Rizzo: I wouldn’t have minded a short interview with Katrina Rose in here either. “By outing Lurleen, Katrina, you have made it more difficult for her to report on anti-gay groups activities. So, do you think you’re a hero then, you jackass?” Something like that.
LOL, nice slant on the so called facts. Next time do your homework before you post, unless you’re trying to write fiction. Lurleen is a blogger/moderator at PHB and DELETED Kathy Padilla’s entire profile FOR ASKING IF SHE HAD A PROFESSIONAL INTEREST. That’s all. And she posted her picture at PHB and ERW. Not much of a hidden profile. She deleted five years of history from PHB because Kathy asked a question. Kathy has a long history of activism in the GLBT community and simply for questioning if she had a proffessional interest in moving marriage rights ahead of LGBT rights. Gays and lesbians can still be discriminated in many states. This isn’t just about trans rights, but the legislative priorities of GayInc. They’re more concerned with marriage rights, than employment rights.
You all can joke about GayInc, but where’s the story in the GayINC blogs about the transgender bill in Maryland that has the trans blogosphere on fire? Bilerico? No. PHB? No. All InsidersOUT blogs. Coincidence? I think not.
And she banned both Kathy Padilla and Katrina Rose.
Wait – you didn’t interview either Katrina Rose, Tom Lang or the person who who had their comments going back years deleted,, the articles they wrote on PHB deleted and all of the comments on threads where that person commented deleted by Laurel?
Hatchet job.
And – how can you out someone who puts her picture and her real name of Laurel Ramseyer on the web saying she’s a front page blogger for PHB? And posts her picture on PHB? Yes – she was frightened that her undercover work might be compromised – but she posts her picture and name on blogs. What a pile.
Outed?
Inigo Montoya: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
@10, I thought the same thing. Dominic, care to respond?
Dear blog commenters full of ignorance:
1. Katrina Rose’s real name is …Katrina Rose. I don’t think Katrina is against marriage equality at all.
I know that I’m for marriage equality AFTER employment rights. If we truly are an LGBT community than our legislative priorities in places like NYC and Boston should be GI inclusion in employment non-discrimination legislation before marriage.
And you gays and lesbians that are fired from your job won’t have much of a marriage or a family without INCOME.
Cart before horse….
This below the fold comment brought above the fold:
==============================
Wait – you didn’t interview either Katrina Rose, Tom Lang or the person who who had their comments going back years deleted,, the articles they wrote on PHB deleted and all of the comments on threads where that person commented deleted by Laurel?
Hatchet job.
And – how can you out someone who puts her picture and her real name of Laurel Ramseyer on the web saying she’s a front page blogger for PHB? And posts her picture on PHB? Yes – she was frightened that her undercover work might be compromised – but she posts her picture and name on blogs. What a pile.
Outed?
Inigo Montoya: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
I meant NY and Mass.
Mzmartipants, you need to calm the fuck down.
Every gain that gays and lesbians have made has positively impacted trans people. Why should we stop our momentum to accomodate the trans foot stamping that the rest of the community isnt caring enough about them?
Talk about throwing the fruity baby out with the tranny bathwater.
I don’t appreciate being told where my priorities need to lie. If I were ever fired from a job for being gay, I would take action, but right now the biggest thing taking rights away from me is marriage. That being said, trans discrimination rights are not where they should be, but I am not at the forefront of that because I have no need to be. Not to say I don’t support those causes. That’s the entire point of this article and conversation:
We need to be supporting each other, not bringing each other down. Wherever the fight is happening. It’s for the good of someone or something. By outing Lurleen, her work was compromised. It didn’t bring anyone up. It only brought others a step back. GLBT rights will not get anywhere if we can’t stop the infighting and one-upmanship of who has more discrimination against them. If we’re fighting for equality, these things shouldn’t matter.
Katrina Rose did not respond to two requests to comment, except to send an email saying that the article should include information about erasing the person’s profile on Pam’s House Blend. And the article does that.
@20 –
You seem to be of the belief that the LGBT community should focus on one thing at a time.
I couldn’t disagree more.
While you’re solely focused on employment discrimination, most activists that I know are going for employment, housing, health care, education, marriage, and other issues that effect our communities.
During this process, we can and are taking what we can get, and continuing to push for more, and this is why we’re winning.
getting banned from a website does not give one the right to retaliate by threatening the safety of someone else.
It’s funny how lunatics of every political persuasion never just have political opponents; they are always combating a nebulous conspiracy that’s out to get them.
Sounds like this Katrina Rose does about as much good for trans rights as Glenn Beck does for the conservative movement.
A tranny acted like a crazypants? That’s weird
Oh cut the crap Laurel / “Lurleen”. We ain’t buying it!
http://knowthyneighbor.blogs.com/home/20…
Your hypocrisy, your neuroses have no place in the world, real or virtual.
For you to argue against the work KnowThyNeighbor.org and WhoSigned.org were doing in Washington State, calling US “carpetbaggers”, being the mouthpiece for Josh Friedes while yourself doing double duty under two separate names influencing Massachusetts politics while claiming I should stay out of Washington State is lunacy.
Even the Laurel Ramseyer bio on ERW’s website seemed fabricated if not in the least puffed up. I contacted MassEquality, no one has heard of you. For someone who initiated the “Couples Project” no one seems to know who you are. And before you say, “MEQ is all new people…” it’s Communications Director was the Editor of BayWindows and even SHE has not heard of you. Arline Isaacson, the chief architect of MA’s Marriage Equality Strategy and one who helped push the importance of couples reaching out to legislators in MA, has not heard of you…in ANY of your incarnations…Laurel, Laurel Ramseyer, Lurleen or Lurleen Blogovitch.
You play the victim really well, especially since you deleted 5 years of trans history from PHB. And now comparing LGBT activists to the “anti-gays?????” Playing THAT victim card? Yeah you REALLY learned alot from the Maggie Gallaghers haven’t you.
Excuse me. I didn’t call you on the phone. However, I did e-mail you twice and provided you with my phone number. I see no incoming calls from 206 that I missed.
Perhaps there is one question I should have asked you directly, namely: Are you intending to do a one-sided, pro-Laurel Ramseyer non-journalistic hack job? I didn’t ask it because, deep down, I just presumed that that was what was in the offing. I guess it is nice to know that my intuition is as good as my knowledge of what the term “outing” means. As the Princess Bride fan above points out, clearly you have as little comprehension of its meaning as Ms. Ramseyer and her defenders seem to have. You can’t be outed if you’re out.
The link to KnowThyNeighbor about “Lurleen”
http://knowthyneighbor.blogs.com/home/20…
@25
Dominic,
I’m not doubting your facts, but you might have put that in the article. I have no idea what the real facts of this story are, it just seems very one sided the way that it is written. It seems like “Lurleen” gave you some info and you printed it almost verbatim. I find that hard to swallow when every time a mainstream reporter does that on a drug war story, slog calls them out as a “stupid fucking credulous hack.” I think you guys are absolutely right to do that and call out reporters. Just expect the same treatment if you print a story that reads as being so one sided. A simple, “Katrina Rose declined to comment on this story,” would be a lot better than the no mention at all that you went with.
Again – from below the fold:
::::::::::::::;;;;:
31
Excuse me. I didn’t call you on the phone. However, I did e-mail you twice and provided you with my phone number. I see no incoming calls from 206 that I missed.
Perhaps there is one question I should have asked you directly, namely: Are you intending to do a one-sided, pro-Laurel Ramseyer non-journalistic hack job? I didn’t ask it because, deep down, I just presumed that that was what was in the offing. I guess it is nice to know that my intuition is as good as my knowledge of what the term “outing” means. As the Princess Bride fan above points out, clearly you have as little comprehension of its meaning as Ms. Ramseyer and her defenders seem to have. You can’t be outed if you’re out.
Posted by KatrinaRose on February 23, 2011 at 2:33 PM · Report
@33
Frank,
I didn’t decline to comment. I expressed reservations, asked questions, and provided Mr. Holden with my phone number.
I was heretofore unfamiliar with what appears to be a popular phrase at The Stranger, “credulous hack.” I presume that the only good to come of this hackjob story will be my becoming familiar with that term.
I am a gay man, and I do not consider myself an activist out side of any voter. Though I am out in the military. I had a similar argument with a lesbian because my main focus of spreading awareness and rights is DADT. I am a tad more active in that arena. Lets face it, the media gives two major things the spot light, DADT and gay marriage. If you want acceptance for all you have to break people in from another angle, once we get DADT marriage will soon follow and after that the rest of the civil rights. It’s more about awareness and acceptance where you can get it, as you can get it; then let it build. What this Ms. Rose did was egregious, obviously this politician has some extreme ‘followers’ and you removed her shield of anonymity because you felt wronged? It was purely malicious and there is no moral high ground for you to take. You Ms.Rose had many other options available to you for recourse outside of childish acts. As far as Gay Inc., sure most gays are focused on marriage because its what they want. Fight for yourself don’t expect someone else to do it for you. Especially since every foot hold either one of us gains its mutually beneficial.
Dominic, you certainly didn’t email me to give you a comment. If your search Laurel Ramseyer, it is the KTN blog that will live for eternity “outing” that who outed herself. But more importantly my blog states for the record what my gripe with Lurleen was during WA’s Ref 71 and Doe v Reed. Let alone what she did to Kathleen Padilla’s comments on trans issues.
“Lurleen” aka “Lurleen Blogovitch” aka “Laurel” aka “Laurel Ramseyer” needs to pick one and stick with it. If she combats me for getting involved in WA politics, which btw is Equality and should know no state boundaries, then she needs to stay out of MA politics and remove herself from our most influential progressive blog here BlueMassGroup.com. She told me once I need to “debate on the merits” yet I find it odd that request as she herself was doing double duty. And THAT needed to be exposed.
BTW – If anyone is interested in seeing what actually transpired (I know…facts are so unfashionable in a FOX world; I mean, “Every gain that gays and lesbians have made has positively impacted trans people”? That might as well have come from Glenn Beck’s ass – or gay legal philosophy from Maryland, ca. 2001), how about actually reading the ENDABlog posts in question?
http://endablog.wordpress.com/2011/01/01…
http://endablog.wordpress.com/2011/01/04…
http://endablog.wordpress.com/2011/01/11…
http://endablog.wordpress.com/2011/01/17…
Hey look! The crazy theater/burlesque/Trans community might be a big conspiracy. I think it is, so that means someone else probably does to! CONFIRMED CONSPIRACY.
Also NEVER FORGET that there are plenty stupid, stupid, stupid GLBTQ peeps. I forgot that until a racist gay psycho tried to get me fired by claiming that my work was in a conspiracy with Obama to make him look bad.
The common thread is conspiracy, If you notice, your stupid friends are always finding conspiracies everywhere because they TUNE OUT the relevant information and assume it was withheld from them, as one would assume many things are.
Why does she need to be anonymous to begin with? Investigative journalists do the same thing, and their names are out there. “Theoretical”, obviously, isn’t my name, but I am a good ‘ole blogger, I use my real name, and you can easily find me. I don’t buy the argument that special work means that she needed to be anonymous.
@ Theoretical, because Lurleen/Laurel Ramseyer wants us to think that she is more important than she is. Since Lurleen already crossed the line and compared us to the anti-gays, I will go there too. KnowThyNeighbor operated a blog with our initiative back in 2005 to now. The anti-gays LOVED to hide behind pseudonyms in order to intimidate. Others being antis or not use anonymity to create the air that they were at a particular event or actually know a person that we are debating or have a closer connection to the subject or situation at hand. Readers may be thinking me callous to call Lurleen out on her “neuroses” but that is what they are. There are clinical definitions for all of this.
Bottom line, Lurleen posted pics of herself on Facebook and tagged them Lurleen Blogovitch. They were the photos from an ERW function in Washington. Her similar pic is on her ERW bio in which it was described that her partner is not an American citizen and named her and the bio said that Lurleen or Laurel Ramseyer will be working on immigration rights for lgbt. When she was “outed” that part of her bio was removed from ERW’s site. Then Autumn Sandeen at PHB does an audio blog that Lurleen is involved in a legal case with Doe v Reed and is doing undercover work at anti-gay organizations…Seriously I do not make these things up. It is all self aggrandizement and fantasyland.
@ Tom
Clearly, because you have a grasp of the actual facts, you must be a conspiracy nut.
Oh wait…you’re also anti-gay.
And, oh wait…you also slaughtered the Easter Bunny, fed its paw tips to the wolverines and then ate the rest yourself after smothering it with Famous Dave’s BBQ sauce……….right?
Deleting internet history is not a valid reason for putting someone in danger. Regardless of how ‘valid’ the perceived biases are.
Jesus fuck people. Step outside your political shit fest for a few seconds and come back to sanity.
SHITSTORM IMMINENT.
Everyone calm the fuck down. Especially all the outraged transchmexuals; we’re all on the same side here.
This isn’t a game, people.
What Katrina Rose and her ilk did was majorly fucked up and selfish. I hate it when I meet another transgender person who reinforces that “me, me, me!” stereotype.
And look. The attention is on her again. Gross.
@44: Good luck with that. Half the thread is now from brand-new registered posters who appear to have showed up for the express purpose of continuing a fight they started somewhere else. Hell hath no fury like a transsexual who thinks he or she has been scorned. May as well just lock it down now.
Please realize that neither Katrina nor her little friend speak for the trans community, especially locally, who has been able to witness first-hand what the “Gay, Inc.” tool known as Lurleen Blogovitch has done for us.
Katrina, she now uses Lurleen for publication. I would think you of all people would understand the right to be called by a name you get to choose yourself, regardless of the reason.
As I already told you privately, your tactics absolutely disgust me and you are a danger to the trans community.
Oh, this is hilarious. Please keep it going guyals! You have all be GREVIOUSLY WRONGED and this is the PERFECT place to correct it and to elaborate on the conspiracies that abound.
Hey trans activists, antagonizing your allies by making hysterical accusations against them does not help your cause. Gently suggesting that marriage equality alone isn’t enough, employment discrimination needs to be addressed too, and politely pressuring for that issue is fine – but saying that employment discrimination is OMG SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT and OMG YOU’RE BEING CLASSIST/TRANSPHOBIC/WHATEVER for focusing on marriage equality is counterproductive and hurts your relationship with your closest allies. There is no reason to be a jerk about a disagreement regarding priorities. Be a friend and you will get much farther – remember the old saw about honey and salt?
@Katrina, et al:
Please do not mistake my criticism of Dominic’s article with any form of agreement with you.