by Joe Siegel

Veteran LGBTQ media journalist Victoria Brownworth passed away on May 22, 2025, after a long battle with cancer. She was 69 years old.

Brownworth started her career writing for Philadelphia Gay News (PGN) at the age of 17. She continued writing for PGN, The Advocate and other LGBTQ and mainstream publications for decades. She was also the longtime television columnist for the Bay Area Reporter (BAR) in San Francisco.

“Ms. Brownworth had long lived with multiple sclerosis and had battled cancer for many years. She had been hospitalized in Philadelphia in recent weeks, according to posts on her X feed that were written by a close friend,” wrote Cynthia Laird, BAR news editor. “With an astute eye toward entertainment, Ms. Brownworth penned the BAR’s Lavender Tube TV column for three decades.”

“One of the great pleasures of my editorial job of the past five years was working on Victoria’s twice-monthly Lavender Tube column,” said Jim Provenzano, the BAR’s arts and nightlife editor. “We’d like to volley back-and-forth emails over TV show suggestions. Toward the end of her illness, she was writing her column from a hospital bed, determined not to miss any deadlines. Her perspectives on television and other topics will be sorely missed. She was a true pioneer in journalism.”

Brownworth authored several books, including “Ordinary Mayhem,” The Golden Age of Lesbian Erotica,” and “Day of the Dead.” The former earned her the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery in 2016. She also contributed columns and op-eds to several LGBTQ publications across the country.

According to her Wikipedia page, “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.”

An emotional December 2022 column she wrote focused on her experience as a widow after losing her spouse, Madelaine “Maddy” Gold. “It was a death so sudden, for which we were so unprepared, that I keep replaying the few days and hours before her death, trying to make sense of what happened and why.”

Brownworth also covered politics. She wrote a 2022 report on LGBTQ assaults being linked to far-right political invective.

“While a lot can be said about Victoria’s talents, I don’t think enough can be said about how she would advocate for marginalized communities through her work,” PGN editor Jeremy Rodriguez wrote in his newspaper. “When pitching a story to me about a topic related to underrepresented communities, she would always explain her reasoning with just two words: ‘It’s important.’”

In fact, in 2010, Brownworth co-founded Tiny Satchel Press, a publishing company that printed young adult books featuring characters from systemically marginalized populations.

“Victoria had been part of the Philadelphia Gay News family for decades,” PGN founder and publisher Mark Segal wrote on Facebook. “She had a gift for writing. She was fearless in her reporting and always looking for the next unique story. I remember she came to me in the 1980s and said, ‘You might not go for this, but how about a story on lesbian nuns?’ That story ended up winning numerous awards.”

Curve Magazine publisher Franco Stevens paid tribute to Brownworth on her Instagram page: “Victoria was a giant in LGBTQ journalism — fierce, fearless, and unflinchingly honest. Her contributions to Curve (then Deneuve Magazine) changed the course of our publication. She brought a level of integrity and depth that raised the bar for us, and for queer media everywhere.”

“She gave our stories legitimacy,” Stevens continued. “Her voice was unapologetically queer, powerfully feminist, and deeply rooted in community. Victoria believed that our stories mattered and she proved it with every word she wrote. Her legacy lives on in every LGBTQ journalist she inspired, and every reader she made feel seen.”

IN THE NEWS
Volume 27
Issue 4