Victoria A. Brownworth (born February 1959 or 1960)[1][2] is 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.[3] She was the first person in the United States to write a column about lesbianism in a daily newspaper.[3]
In 1983, Brownworth reported on the "corruption at a Philadelphia based social service agency."[3] She has also won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery for her 2016 novel Ordinary Mayhem.[4][5]
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Brownworth worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.[3] She was the first open lesbian to have a daily column,[11] and may have been the first to have a daily column about lesbian issues.[3] Later, she became a host on Amazon Country on WXPN-FM, the first lesbian radio program in the United States.[3]
In 1993, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Brownworth began focusing primarily on writing books and editing anthologies.[3]
In 2010, Brownworth co-founded Tiny Satchel Press, a publishing company that printed young adult books featuring characters from systemically marginalized populations.
Brownworth has won the Society of Professional Journalism Award[14] and the NLGJA Award.[12]
Personal life
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).[15] In one 18-month period, she broke 13 bones due to her symptoms, though she still believed nothing was seriously wrong.[15] 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.[15] In 1994, she began to use a wheelchair, which she has used on and off since.[1]
Brownworth has also had breast cancer, has a damaged heart, and "a spot on [her] lung."[1]
Brownworth lives in Philadelphia. She and her partner, Maddy Gold,[16] met while attending the Philadelphia High School for Girls and dated off and on for years.[17] 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.[17] They were married in October of that year on their 15-year anniversary.[17] Gold died of cancer on November 12, 2022.[18] After Gold's death, Brownworth was harassed by anti-vaccine activists following the release of Died Suddenly, an anti-vaccine film.[19][20]
Awards
Awards and honors for Brownworth's writing
Year
Title
Award/Honor
Result
Ref.
1980s
Gay & Lesbian Press Association's Award for Ongoing Coverage of Non-Medical Issues
^Doan-Minh, Sarah (Winter 2019). "Corrective Rape: An Extreme Manifestation of Discrimination and the State's Complicity in Sexual Violence". Hastings Women's Law Journal. 30 (1): 167–197.
^ abBrownworth, Victoria A. (July 5, 2020). "Victoria A Brownworth". CURVE. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
