Torstein Tranøy was a Norwegian journalist and writer.

He hailed from Trondheim

Trondheim

Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...

. After starting his journalist career in the local Radio RV, he took journalist education in Oslo

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

, and started working in Klassekampen

Klassekampen

Klassekampen is a Norwegian daily newspaper, which styles itself as "the daily left-wing newspaper".Klassekampen was founded in 1969 with a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist platform. Until recently, it was owned by The Workers' Communist Party...

. He headed the local trade union, and left in protest when editor-in-chief Paul Bjerke

Paul Bjerke

Paul Bjerke, born 1952, is a Norwegian media scientist.He currently works as a research fellow at the Volda University College and the research institute De Facto, having graduated from the University of Oslo with the mag.art degree in 1982. Bjerke was the editor-in-chief of Klassekampen from 1995...

 was removed in 1997. In 1998 he found work in the business newspaper Dagens Næringsliv

Dagens Næringsliv

Dagens Næringsliv, commonly known as DN, is a Norwegian tabloid specializing in business reporting with a claimed daily circulation of 82,775 copies in 2008, making it the 8th largest newspaper in Norway. The editor in chief is Amund Djuve. Its name is Norwegian for "Today's Business".Originally...

, where he worked at the time of his death. His specialty in journalism was labour, trade unions and wage issues. In 2007 he released the book Vallas fall, about the scandal involving Gerd-Liv Valla

Gerd-Liv Valla

Gerd-Liv Valla was the leader of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions . She took over in 2001 and resigned in 2007. In 1997 she was the Norwegian Minister of Justice....

 and Ingunn Yssen.

Openly gay, Tranøy was elected leader of the gay rights organization Det Norske Forbundet av 1948 in 1991. He succeeded Kjell Erik Øie

Kjell Erik Øie

Kjell Erik Øie is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party.He served in the position of deputy representative to the Norwegian Parliament from Oslo during the term 2005–2009...

. The organization went defunct in 1992 as Norwegian National Association for Lesbian and Gay Liberation

Norwegian National Association for Lesbian and Gay Liberation

Landsforeningen for lesbisk og homofil frigjøring is a Norwegian "working politically and socially so that those who are gay, lesbian and bisexual can live openly without fear of being ostracized, discriminated, or harassed."The organization had its early beginnings in 1949, when the Danish...

was established.

Tranøy died suddenly in September 2009.