Victoria Brownworth, a lesbian who was the longtime television columnist for the Bay Area Reporter and contributed to other publications, died May 22. She was 69.
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.
With an astute eye toward entertainment, Ms. Brownworth penned the B.A.R.’s Lavender Tube TV column for three decades. Often, her writing veered into the political.
“One of the great pleasures of my editorial job of the past five years was working on Victoria's twice-monthly Lavender Tube column, which she had been writing for decades,” stated B.A.R. arts and nightlife editor Jim Provenzano. “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,” he added. “Her perspectives on television and other topics will be sorely missed. She was a true pioneer in journalism.”
Her last B.A.R. column was published April 29. It looked at the latest season of “Hacks” and Martha Stewart’s cooking show.
“We have been a fan of Martha Stewart’s for decades,” Ms. Brownworth wrote. “A true icon, Martha Stewart has done it all. She’s built a multimillion brand, hosted multiple TV series, published a raft of bestselling books, published Martha Stewart Living magazine, created an aura of beauty, perfect food from salads to desserts and built gardens galore. Oh, and she also makes stuff.”
She ended the column with coverage of Pope Francis’ death.
“Francis’ stance on LGBTQ people outraged many in the Church hierarchy, but Francis brought in Jesuit priest Father James Martin as his emissary to the community,” Ms. Brownworth wrote. “Martin told ABC anchor David Muir that when Martin asked Francis what he could do for him, Francis said to keep ministering as he was.
“A man of grace, compassion, and kindness who was aggressively progressive on myriad issues including the environment, immigrants, and the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Francis was dedicated to the poor and the vulnerable. He said Donald Trump could not be a Christian while deporting people.
“We shall not see his like again. So, for the sacred and the profane, you know you really must stay tuned.”
Also an author, she won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery for her 2016 novel, “Ordinary Mayhem,” and was a five-time finalist in other categories.
Mark Segal, a gay man who is publisher of Philadelphia Gay News, noted that Ms. Brownworth also wrote for his LGBTQ newspaper.
“Victoria had been part of the Philadelphia Gay News family for decades,” 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.”
In addition to writing entertainment articles, Ms. Brownworth also contributed to PGN’s LGBTQ History Month program, in which several publications, including the B.A.R., shared stories during October.
In 2023, she authored a piece about how the National Organization for Women purged lesbians from its ranks in its early years even as it was co-founded by Pauli Murray, a gender-nonconforming lesbian; Betty Friedan, and Aileen Hernandez.
“NOW was itself a groundbreaking organization, which made Friedan's purging of lesbians from that organization in 1970 – after calling them the "lavender menace" in an interview with the New York Times Magazine – significant on myriad levels,” Ms. Brownworth wrote. “That action effectively separated lesbians from mainstream feminism, just as they had been separated by gender from the decidedly male gay liberation movement.”
Ms. Brownworth’s beloved wife, Maddy Gold, died of cancer in 2022.
