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 and host a lesbian radio show.^[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]

Brownworth uses "she" and "they" pronouns.^[6]

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).^[7] In one 18-month period, she broke 13 bones due to her symptoms, though she still believed nothing was seriously wrong.^[7] 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.^[7] 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,^[8] met while attending the Philadelphia High School for Girls and dated off and on for years.^[9] 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.^[9] They were married in October of that year on their 15-year anniversary.^[9] Gold died of cancer on Nov. 12, 2022.^[10]

Brownworth published her first book of poetry at age 18^[11] and began writing for Philadelphia Gay News when she was 17.^[12]

Brownworth studied American studies and women's history at the Temple University and represented the university at the first National Women's Studies Association.^[13] 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.^[14]

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,^[15] and may have been the first to have a daily column about lesbian issues.^[3] Later, she became the first person to host a lesbian radio program in the United States, Amazon Country on WXPN-FM.^[3]

In 1993, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Brownworth began focusing primarily on writing books and editing anthologies.^[3]

She has also been a contributing editor for Curve^[16] and Lambda Literary Review and has been a regular contributing writer for SheWired, Advocate,^[17] 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 has won the Society of Professional Journalism Award^[18] and the NLGJA Award.^[16]