It's sad that's required. Of course, it was obvious to everyone that Laurie is female (since her user name is
@Laurie). However, a number of the misogynistic posts also just got her fed up. Folks (who really are pretty crappy pilots themselves) saying a woman has no place flying a plane, etc.
To be fair, this sort of behavior isn't limited to this forum, or aviation, it occurs anywhere you have boys involved (some of these boys may be geriatrics, they just never matured) in a male-dominated area. That said, this forum is one of the worst I've seen with regards to misogyny. The Twin Cessna forum (where I spend a significant amount of time) is male dominated, but we have had a few women on (including one who was a 414 owner but not a pilot herself) and everyone has treated them respectfully. I don't see the misogynistic posts there that I do here.
Around 15 years ago, I spent most of my time in the Jaguar world, and the Jaguar forum I was on had an IRC chat room where I was a regular. We had several women who came in there. One disguised herself at first (by calling herself Nick - her real name was Nicole), but she was just another one of us and once she realized that we didn't treat her differently for being female she opened up. We gave her advice on how to fix her Jag (she was the mechanic in the family). Another female member hosted her own porn site (starring her) and was very open about it. Again, nobody treated her any differently. She was a good friend, gave me some good advice and we mostly talked about her car and her family.
I agree that people are making too big of a deal of Kimberly leaving. Personally, I don't miss her, but I didn't like her. I also don't like Ron or Captain, and don't miss them.
However, the discussion regarding treatment of women on the forum sparked by this is justified and a problem that needs to be addressed.