Unmasking "Tori Rosenbaum"

Summary: "Tori Rosenbaum," a pseudonymous anti-transgender speaker and writer active in so-called Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, is Emily Jane Cooney, a freelance editor, aspiring author, and employee of the Queensland Government.

Foreword

Unmasking is a technique used by marginalised people and our antifascist allies. It is used in self-defence against parties who have demonstrated both the intent and the ability to inflict unjustifiable and unprovoked harm on marginalised people solely for being marginalised, and who operate under assumed names to avoid being held to account for their actions.

Unmasking, as we define it, consists of associating a hostile actor's assumed identity with their true identity, providing enough information to establish that the identification is definitive, but not providing information that we believe will expose the hostile actor to the immediate risk of physical harm.

When unmasking someone, we hope that publishing the information will allow well-intentioned members of the hostile actor's community to start the processes of accountability and (eventually) restorative justice by calling them in. Failing that, however, a successful unmasking will still limit a hostile actor's present and future potential to do harm.

On July 25, 2022 (local time), the book Strange Angel: How to Help Your Trans-Kid Safely Establish Their Identity was, according to its Amazon listing, "Independently published" in paperback. Strange Angel can be briefly summarised as a primer for subjecting young trans children, particularly and especially trans boys, to psychologically brutal transphobic child abuse.

Strange Angel promotes the scientifically baseless, intentionally malicious lie that trans children, particularly trans boys, come to falsely believe they are trans due to 'social contagion'; that is, they catch it from their friends. It dismisses trans children's genders as their "mind forged manacles," and pretends that their expressions of suffering and distress, up to and including suicidality, are part of "a set of unquestioned assertions" called "the Script".

Strange Angel promises to "comfort" and "empower" parents who want to force their trans children back into the closet, and indeed describes itself as "one mother's successful struggle to help both her daughters [sic] caught in the thrall of the Script," implying the author has done so.

Strange Angel's author is credited, and identifies herself on Twitter, as "Tori Rosenbaum," a variation of the longer name she uses on Strange Angel's website and at public events, "Tori Esther Rosenbaum-Fudge". As the author herself implies, this is an obvious pseudonym — her assumed initials are T.E.R.F., an abbreviation shared by the anti-trans political subgroup called "trans-exclusionary radical feminists".

We were able to identify "Tori Rosenbaum" with her true identity, Emily Jane Cooney. This is how.

On both her website and Twitter, "Rosenbaum" provides the following photo of herself.

As the photo refers to the title of the book, it would presumably have been taken at the beginning of the marketing campaign for the book, i.e., around the time the Strange Angel website went live. The Wayback Machine's earliest accessible capture of the website is August 7, 2022, although its 2022 calendar shows an earlier capture on June 18. Both are consistent with Strange Angel's paperback release on July 25.

Here is the WHOIS record provided by the .au Domain Administration (auDA) for strangeangel.com.au, as it appeared on November 4, 2022, at around 07:33:34 UTC (17:33:34 Australian Eastern Standard time).

These are the relevant parts:

• Last Modified: 2022-05-11T01:36:19Z
• Registrant Contact Name: Emily Cooney
• Registrant Contact Email: toriestherrosenbaum@gmail.com
• Registrant: Emily Cooney
• Registrant ID: ABN 73424681560
• Eligibility Type: Sole Trader
• Eligibility Name: Emily Cooney
• Eligibility ID: ABN 73424681560

We used the Australian Business Register (ABR) to look up Australian Business Number (ABN) 73 424 681 560. It is assigned to COONEY, EMILY JANE, a sole trader whose main business location is in QLD 4123 (a Queensland postcode area on the boundary between Brisbane and Logan).

auDA regulates the .au country-code top-level domain (ccTLD). The "Last Modified" date was after all of the effective dates currently specified in the auDA Rules, so we guessed that strangeangel.com.au would be subject to the current auDA Rules and that its registrant would be subject to the auDA Rules: Licensing ("Licensing Rules"). We confirmed this using auDA's licensing version tool.

Given the Licensing Rules, the WHOIS record strongly associates strangeangel.com.au with COONEY, EMILY JANE, to the exclusion of anyone else. Sections 2.2.6 and 2.2.9 together mean that the domain is registered for COONEY (not by them for someone else). Section 2.4.4 means that COONEY's entitlement to register strangeangel.com.au is because they are selling a product under the brand name 'Strange Angel' (we did not locate any evidence that COONEY is eligible to hold that domain on any of the other permitted grounds).

We did not consider this proof positive that "Rosenbaum" and Emily Cooney are the same person. We conjectured that they might have some other relation which made Cooney eligible to hold the domain under the auDA Licensing Rules. It did occur to us that they might be the same person, so we decided to explore that hypothesis further.

We located Cooney's LinkedIn profile. The third-party archiving service we use, Archive Today, seemingly cannot archive LinkedIn due to an authwall (a login prompt which obscures the content, preventing automated web crawlers from accessing it), so this secti0n is sourced using screen captures instead.

Cooney's LinkedIn says she started working as a freelance editor (work for which a sole trader business structure is typical) in June 2014.

Cooney had 4 previous jobs, with Griffith University, Eximm Management Group, Jacques Technologies, and the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney-General; her editing seems to be her first freelance work.

This is consistent with the date when COONEY, EMILY JANE's ABN was initially assigned, in April 2014.

Cooney's LinkedIn also notes her working as an author services provider under the brand name Emily for Emphasis, starting in March 2016.

Because Emily for Emphasis is a defined business activity, we refer to it from this point forward as if it were a separate company.

Here is Google Image Search's cached copy of Cooney's LinkedIn profile picture.

This popover appears when attempting to access Cooney's profile on a mobile device while not logged in:

This confirms that the image is Cooney's profile picture, not, for example, some other person's image which happened to be present on the page at the time it was cached.

Cooney does not seem to be an extraordinarily active LinkedIn user. We expect the picture was taken at some point between 2014, when she created the profile ...

... and 2016, when she was last publicly active.

(Cooney's résumé and this comment demonstrate the exact skills and experience that "Rosenbaum" would need.)

Here is a side-by-side comparison of Emily Cooney circa 2014 to 2016, as she appears on LinkedIn, and "Tori Rosenbaum" circa 2022, as she appears on StrangeAngel.com.au.

Note that, accounting for differently coloured lighting, different angles, and different facial expressions, they have the same basic hair shade, skin tone, face shape and lip shape. "Rosenbaum" has visible grey at her hairline, which makes sense for 6 to 8 years of ageing (or just regrowth). "Rosenbaum" also has a more pronounced widow's peak, which could also be ageing, or could be traction alopecia, given Cooney's apparent fondness for a tight ponytail.

We were also able to associate Cooney's LinkedIn profile with her Facebook profile. To verify the association, here is a photograph of Cooney from a Public post she made on June 5, 2022. We believe it to be from circa September 2021, when, as Felix Long, she was named Logan Laureate, hence the wreath. More on Felix in a moment.

Here's Cooney's LinkedIn photo, circa 2014 to 2016, side-by-side with her Facebook Logan Laureate photo, circa 2021.

Here's her Logan Laureate photo, circa September 2021, with "Tori Rosenbaum's" photo, circa late June 2022.

In September 2022, Cooney spoke at the Logan Writers' Festival in Loganlea, where, while she did not conceal being Emily Cooney, she was officially billed under a nom de plume — not "Tori Rosenbaum," but the name under which she writes urban fantasy, Felix Long. Here is an April 2022 post by the Festival about a September 2021 appearance by Cooney, explicitly identifying Cooney as Long. A comment by Cooney appears to confirm it.

Note that while Cooney appears to use she/her pronouns, her website for Felix Long, felixlong.co.uk, self-refers with masculine language (e.g., "Uncle"). As a result, we refer to the Long persona, where it is relevant, as he/him.

On her Twitter page, "Rosenbaum" claims to be based in Brisbane. We consider this claim credible because she spoke at an October 29, 2022 public event organised by local anti-trans group IWD Brisbane Meanjin, which took place in the Brisbane central business district on the George St side of Reddacliff Place.

COONEY, EMILY JANE, the domain registrant, is located in the 4123 postcode area, which includes areas in both Brisbane and Logan. The meaning of "Brisbane" is loose enough that some might consider it to be a valid umbrella word for all of South East Queensland. However, more importantly, someone living in 4123 would be about as close as it is possible to get to the Logan Writers' Festival venue in Loganlea while still technically remaining in Brisbane.

In addition, the front matter of Strange Angel is extremely consistent with the apparent house style of Emily for Emphasis, which is also visible in books by Felix Long. For perspective, here is the Kindle front matter for four books that Emily Cooney definitely did not publish: Julia Serano's Sexed Up, Maya Deane's Wrath Goddess Sing, and two other books which were independently published in Australia, like Strange Angel, but which were otherwise chosen at random.

Here, on the other hand, are three Felix Long books and Strange Angel:

Felix Long's books and Strange Angel share a number of features; among them: continuous pagination (all), identical cover image dimensions (all), same typeface (all), author's name in the same position on the cover with the same clearance (3 of 4), and an identical order of text elements (3 of 4). In short, Strange Angel looks rather more like Emily Cooney's handiwork than can easily be explained by chance.

There is also the question of life stories. "Rosenbaum" claims to be the parent of two teenage trans boys. As of the last snapshot of his website in the Internet Archive, on May 20, Felix Long identified himself as a parent. Cooney was openly Long as of at least eight months earlier, likely more, therefore it is reasonable to conclude it is true that she is a parent.

Cooney's cover photo shows her with two children who appear to be presented as girls. The photo was published on April 21, 2014, and we have no reason to think it was taken much earlier or later than that. Given that context, the apparent ages of Cooney's children are consistent with the timeline given in Strange Angel for "Rosenbaum's" children. It is possible, in theory, that the children in Cooney's cover photo are unrelated to her. However, one of Cooney's relatives refers to "the girls," a phrasing which suggests that Cooney is a parent of multiple children considered girls.

Finally, IWD Brisbane Meanjin appear to have thought that editing the face of "Rosenbaum" out of her video would be effective in concealing her identity. However, other videos exist from the same event, including one of a speech given by IWD Brisbane Meanjin's convenor, Anna McCormack.

During McCormack's speech, the camera pans away from her, starting at circa 5m 8s. While turning back and repositioning, the videographer pans the camera across the crowd, providing multiple unobstructed seconds of footage of crowd members. One of them is "Tori Rosenbaum," identifiable from her clothing.

"Rosenbaum" discernibly bears an extremely close resemblance to Emily Cooney, including in terms of height, hair shade, skin tone, side profile, and build. We know this because not only do we see her in profile ...

... but she helpfully "spikes" the camera, meaning she looks at it dead on.

And then of course there's the face-on, unobstructed image that IWD Brisbane Meanjin posted on their Facebook page.

We have no idea how hard Emily Cooney was trying to stay anonymous, but it doesn't seem to have mattered. It doesn't take an urban fantasy author or a long-serving freelance editor to see the writing on the wall.

The Sunrise Antifascist Collective are an antifascist analysis and research group which arose in the cities on so-called Australia's east coast. You can reach them at sunriseantifascists@proton.me.