Victoria A. Brownworth (February 1956 – May 22, 2025) was an American journalist, writer and editor. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, she wrote numerous award-winning articles about

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

in women, children, and people of color. She was the first person in the United States to write a column about lesbianism in a daily newspaper. In 1983, Brownworth reported on the "corruption at a Philadelphia based social service agency." She also won the

Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery The Lambda Literary Award for Mystery is an annual literary award, presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation, to a mystery novel by or about people in the LGBT community. Prior to 2021, the award was separated into separate categories for Gay a ...

for her 2016 novel ''Ordinary Mayhem.'' Brownworth used "she" and "they" pronouns.

Early life

Brownworth was born in February 1956. She published her first book of poetry at age 18 and began writing for Philadelphia Gay News when she was 17. Brownworth studied

American studies American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, History of the United States, history, Society of the United States, society, and Culture of the Unit ...

and

women's history Women's history is the study of the role that Woman, women have played in history and Historiography, the methods required to do so. It includes the study of the history of the growth of woman's rights, women's rights throughout recorded history, ...

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

and represented the university at the first

National Women's Studies Association The National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) is an organization founded in 1977, made up of scholars and practitioners in the field of women's studies also known as women's and gender studies, feminist studies, and related names in the 21st c ...

. Near graduation, she became the star witness "in the first federal police brutality trial in Philadelphia." The police were acquitted, and she began her career in

advocacy journalism Advocacy journalism is a genre of journalism that adopts a non-objective viewpoint, usually for some social or political purpose. Some advocacy journalists reject the idea that the traditional ideal of objectivity is possible or practical, in par ...

Career

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Brownworth worked for the

Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

and

Philadelphia Daily News ''Philadelphia Daily News'' is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper is owned by The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC, which also owns ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', a daily newspaper in Philadelphia. The ''Dail ...

. She was the first open lesbian to have a daily column, and may have been the first to have a daily column about lesbian issues. Later, she became a host on Amazon Country on

WXPN-FM WXPN (88.5 FM) is a non-commercial, public radio station licensed to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that broadcasts an adult album alternative (AAA) radio format, along with many other format sho ...

, the first lesbian radio program in the United States. In 1993, after being diagnosed with

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

, Brownworth began focusing primarily on writing books and editing anthologies. She was also a contributing editor for ''

Curve In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line, but that does not have to be straight. Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point. This is the definition that ...

'' and ''Lambda Literary Review'' and was a regular contributing writer for '' SheWired'', ''Advocate'', ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', and ''

HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

''. In 2010, Brownworth co-founded Tiny Satchel Press, a publishing company that printed young adult books featuring characters from systemically marginalized populations. Brownworth won the Society of Professional Journalism Award and the NLGJA Award.

Personal life and death

In her early-to-mid-thirties, Brownworth started experiencing a number of symptoms she chalked up to being overworked (e.g., general malaise and difficulty walking). In one 18-month period, she broke 13 bones due to her symptoms, though she still believed nothing was seriously wrong. However, when she went blind due to

optic neuritis Optic neuritis (ON) is a debilitating condition that is defined as inflammation of cranial nerve II which results in disruption of the neurologic pathways that allow visual sensory information received by the retina to be able to be transmitted to ...

, she visited a doctor who diagnosed her with primary progressive multiple sclerosis, a diagnosis she resisted for over a year. In 1994, she began to use a wheelchair, which she used on and off thereafter. Brownworth also had breast cancer, a damaged heart, and "a spot on erlung." Brownworth lived in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. She and her partner, Maddy Gold, met while attending the

Philadelphia High School for Girls Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the sixth-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 1,603,797 in the 2020 census. The city is the urb ...

and dated off and on for years. Brownworth and Gold had been living together for many years when in 2014 Pennsylvania deemed the ban on

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

to be unconstitutional, and Brownworth immediately proposed. They were married in October of that year on their 15-year anniversary. Gold died of cancer on November 12, 2022. After Gold's death, Brownworth was harassed by anti-vaccine activists following the release of '' Died Suddenly'', an anti-vaccine film. Brownworth died after a long struggle with cancer on May 22, 2025, at the age of 69.

Awards

Publications

Anthology contributions

* ''Women of Mystery: An Anthology'' (2006) * ''Fantasy: Untrue Stories of Lesbian Passion'' (2007) * ''Wild Nights: (Mostly) True Stories of Women Loving Women'' (2007) * ''Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme'' (2011) * ''Women of the Mean Streets'' (2011) * ''Night Shadows: Queer Horror'' (2012)

Anthologies edited

* ''Out for Blood'' (1995) * ''Night Bites: Vampire Stories by Women Tales of Blood and Lust'' (1996) * ''Out for More Blood'' (1996) * ''Night Shade: Gothic Tales by Women'', with Judith M. Redding (1999) * ''Restricted Access: Lesbians on Disability'' (1999) * ''Coming Out of Cancer: Writings from the Lesbian Cancer Epidemic'' (2000) * ''Bed: New Lesbian Erotica'' (2007) * ''The Golden Age of Lesbian Erotica: 1920-1940'', with Judith M. Redding (2007) * ''From Where We Sit: Black Writers Write Black Youth'' (2011) * ''Ordinary Mayhem'' (2015)

Books written

* ''Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors'', with Judith M. Redding (1997) * ''Day of the Dead'' (2009) * ''Ordinary Mayhem'' (2015) * ''Erasure'' (2017) * ''Sleep So Deep'' (2017)

Essay collections

* ''Too Queer: Essays from a Radical Life'' (1996)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brownworth, Victoria 1956 births 2025 deaths American lesbian writers American writers with disabilities Writers from Philadelphia People with multiple sclerosis 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women journalists Temple University alumni 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American novelists American LGBTQ novelists LGBTQ people from Pennsylvania Novelists from Pennsylvania Journalists from Pennsylvania American LGBTQ journalists Lambda Literary Award winners Deaths from cancer in Pennsylvania