Victoria Brownworth

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]

Victoria Brownworth
Born1960
Alma materTemple University
Known forjournalist, writer, and editor

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]

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).[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]

Education and career

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]

Controversy

Transphobia controversy

Since 1981, Brownworth has campaigned for her view that trans women are not real women and should be barred from awards and participation in programs for women.[19]

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 [20]
Gay & Lesbian Press Association's Award for Ongoing Coverage Health Coverage [20]
Gay & Lesbian Press Association's Award for National News Reporting [20]
1997 Night Bites Lambda Literary Award for Nonfiction Anthology Finalist [21]
2000 Night Shade: Gothic Tales by Women Lambda Literary Award for Science Fiction/Fantasy Finalist [22]
2001 Coming Out of Cancer Lambda Literary Award for Nonfiction Anthology Finalist [23]
2007 "Our Dirtiest Secret: Domestic Violence in Our Community" Suburban Newspaper Association's Award for Investigative Reporting Winner [20]
2008 The Golden Age of Lesbian Erotica Lambda Literary Award for Erotica Finalist [24]
"Killing Ourselves with Hate: Suicide in the GLBT Community" NLGJA Excellence in News Writing Award Second [25]
2009 "Hiding in Plain Sight" Society of Professional Journalists's Award for Enterprise Story Winner [20]
2011 Day of the Dead American Library Association's Over the Rainbow Project Selection [26]
2012 From Where We Sit Moonbeam Award for Young Adult Fiction - Historical/Cultural Silver [27]
2014 "Trans Sex Workers" Keystone Press Award for Series Second [20]
Society of Professional Journalists's Award for Enterprise Reporting Winner [20]
2016 Ordinary Mayhem Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery Winner [4][5]
2020 "COVID and the LGBTQ community" Sigma Delta Chi Award for Newspaper Feature Reporting in a Non-Daily Publication Winner [18]

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
  1. Gonzalez Cerna, Antonio (February 18, 2011). "Victoria Brownworth: The Activist Writer". Lambda Literary. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  2. Brownworth, Victoria (February 22, 2015). "Dancing with Audre Lorde: A Lesbian Memory". Lambda Literary. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  3. Nahmod, David-Elijah (October 5, 2011). "BOOKS: Tiny Satchel Press gives LGBT youth of color a voice". Windy City Times. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  4. Johns, Merryn (July 5, 2016). "2016 LAMMYS A Huge Success". CURVE. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
  5. "28th Annual Lammy Award Winners Announced". Lambda Literary. June 7, 2016. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
  6. "Victoria Brownworth". Twitter. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  7. Brownworth, Victoria A. (October 11, 2013). "Coming Out As...Disabled". Advocate. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  8. "Victoria A. Brownworth". Goodreads. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  9. Brownworth, Victoria A. (May 21, 2014). "Op-ed: My Big Long-Awaited Lesbian Wedding". Pride. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  10. "Madelaine "Maddy" Gold—11/12/2022". November 14, 2022. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
  11. Brownworth, Victoria (March 29, 2012). "In Remembrance: Adrienne Rich". Lambda Literary. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  12. Brownworth, Victoria A. (April 6, 2021). "A reporter looks back". Philadelphia Gay News. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
  13. Brownworth, Victoria A. (September 29, 2021). "Capturing History". VictoriaBrownworth. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  14. Cohen, Paige (March 31, 2015). "Victoria A. Brownworth on Her New Novel 'Ordinary Mayhem'". Lambda Literary. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  15. 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.
  16. Brownworth, Victoria A. (July 5, 2020). "Victoria A Brownworth". CURVE. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  17. "Victoria A. Brownworth". Advocate. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  18. "Sigma Delta Chi Awards". Society of Professional Journalists. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  19. "PGN! TERF Victoria Brownworth Teaches Us About Transphobia?! What, Julie Bindel wasn't Available?". TransAdvocate. June 25, 2013. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
  20. "243 awards and counting ..." Philadelphia Gay News. April 6, 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
  21. Antonio, Gonzalez Cerna (July 15, 1997). "9th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  22. Cerna, Antonio Gonzalez (July 15, 2000). "12th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary Foundation. Retrieved July 3, 2013.
  23. Gonzalez Cerna, Antonio (July 10, 2001). "13th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  24. Gonzalez Cerna, Antonio (April 30, 2007). "20th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  25. "2008 Excellence in Journalism Award Winners". NLGJA. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  26. "Day of the Dead | Awards & Grants". www.ala.org. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  27. "2012 Winners" (PDF). Moonbeam Awards. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
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