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 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 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 and women's history at Temple University and represented the university at the first National Women's Studies Association. 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.
Career In the 1980s and early 1990s, Brownworth worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News. 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, the first lesbian radio program in the United States.
In 1993, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Brownworth began focusing primarily on writing books and editing anthologies.
She was also a contributing editor for Curve and Lambda Literary Review and was a regular contributing writer for SheWired, Advocate, The Independent, and HuffPost.
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, 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 [her] lung."
Brownworth lived in Philadelphia. She and her partner, Maddy Gold, met while attending the Philadelphia High School for Girls 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 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 +Awards and honors for Brownworth's writingYearTitleAward/HonorResultRef.1980sGay & Lesbian Press Association's Award for Ongoing Coverage of Non-Medical IssuesGay & Lesbian Press Association's Award for Ongoing Coverage Health CoverageGay & Lesbian Press Association's Award for National News Reporting1997Night BitesLambda Literary Award for Nonfiction AnthologyFinalist2000Night Shade: Gothic Tales by WomenLambda Literary Award for Science Fiction/FantasyFinalist2001Coming Out of CancerLambda Literary Award for Nonfiction AnthologyFinalist2007"Our Dirtiest Secret: Domestic Violence in Our Community"Suburban Newspaper Association's Award for Investigative ReportingWinner2008The Golden Age of Lesbian EroticaLambda Literary Award for EroticaFinalist"Killing Ourselves with Hate: Suicide in the GLBT Community"NLGJA Excellence in News Writing AwardSecond2009"Hiding in Plain Sight"Society of Professional Journalists's Award for Enterprise StoryWinner2011Day of the DeadAmerican Library Association's Over the Rainbow ProjectSelection2012From Where We SitMoonbeam Award for Young Adult Fiction - Historical/CulturalSilver2014"Trans Sex Workers"Keystone Press Award for SeriesSecondSociety of Professional Journalists's Award for Enterprise ReportingWinner2016Ordinary MayhemLambda Literary Award for Lesbian MysteryWinner2020"COVID and the LGBTQ community"Sigma Delta Chi Award for Newspaper Feature Reporting in a Non-Daily PublicationWinner
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