Sydney Pokorny (23 December 1965 – 1 September 2008) was an American lesbian writer, art critic, editor, columnist and activist based in New York.

The author of numerous articles on topics ranging from "Madonna Studies" to art criticism and the AIDS epidemic; she also cowrote the Lambda Literary Award nominated[1] So You Want to be a Lesbian?

In 1989, she joined the newly formed Women's Caucus[2] of ACT-UP after nearly a year in the group protesting housing issues, governmental policy, and lack of action by city and state agencies.

The Handbook was, until the early 90s, the only document to focus on all the issues faced by the growing number of women infected with HIV and living with AIDS.

One of her contributions, cultural criticism on Madonna and "the lesbian gaze" called "Obsess Yourself"[4] was published in the Gay Community News in 1989.

Quotations from "Obsess Yourself" may be found in essay collections as diverse as: AIDS and the National Body by Thomas E. Yingling and Robyn Wiegman, Acting Out: Lesbian Performances by Lynda Hart and Peggy Phelan,[5] The Madonna Connection: Representational Politics, Subcultural Identities, and Cultural Theory, edited by Cathy Schwichtenberg[6] and I Dream of Madonna, edited by Kay Turner.

There she wrote humorous articles about everything from her passion for Coco Chanel[9] to her admiration for drag queens[10] Eventually, she teamed up with writer Liz Tracey to contribute a weekly nightlife column called "Out on the Town.

[30] Pokorny also worked for Artforum as an associate editor in charge of coordinating book reviews, during which time she edited writers such as Greil Marcus[31][32][33] and Thomas E. Crow[34] and as editorial coordinator of the magazine's spin-off publication, a quarterly review of books related to art and culture, called Bookforum.