Virginia Apuzzo: Using Activism and Politics to Achieve Change

Opening music plays for six seconds then fades.

[Grace Brown – over music] What is the best way to create change? Is it through politics or through activism? Is it most effective to write laws, or to march through the streets? And what should the goal be? To reform the system or to completely destroy it? Throughout the course of history, change-makers have always grappled with this question. 

Music fades out.

[GB] 

Now, when marginalized people are once again being targeted by the far right in America and across the globe, this question is once again at the front of our minds. Anti-immigrant rhetoric has been increasingly popular, women are dying because of abortion restrictions, and queer people feel unsafe. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, there are currently 558 anti-LGBTQ+ bills across the United States.¹ So, how do we fight back? While there may not be a straightforward answer, it is always important to look back at past movements and learn from their successes and failures. Hello and welcome. My name is Grace Brown, and today, we’re going to be focusing on the AIDS movement, specifically the story of Virginia Apuzzo – an activist who marched and worked with the then-named National Gay Task Force, now the National LGBTQ Task Force, but also worked with the governor of New York and in the Clinton administration. But before that, she was just Ginny, a girl growing up in the Bronx in an Italian Catholic family, knowing she wasn’t really like the other girls. By the time she was ten, Ginny had fallen in love with a girl, and learned that that wasn’t seen as normal.

So she knew from a young age that she was a lesbian, but she also knew she was Catholic, and those identities caused a conflict in her life. When Apuzzo was 26, after going to college and teaching for a couple years, she decided to enter a convent to fully grapple with this conflict. She spent this time studying theology, and after three years, Apuzzo left the convent and went back to teaching. This chapter in her life is when she entered activist movements, including the Gay Academic Union and Lesbian Feminist Liberation. 

Honestly, Apuzzo did so much that it’s impossible to list everything. She helped fund LAMBDA Independent Democrats, which is a group for Brooklyn queer folks and is still around today. She ran for state assembly in New York, and ultimately lost, but moved on to work with Governor Mario Cuomo, holding three different positions in his administration. This ultimately led her to working in the White House for President Clinton. She helped implement a gay and lesbian plank for the Democratic party in ‘76, and worked with the National Gay Task Force, serving as Director. And that’s not even all of it!

One thing I noticed when learning about Apuzzo’s story was her ability to connect with people everywhere she went. It seems every single chapter in her life, she was able to make friends, often in unlikely characters. When working with the Task Force, she communicated with a man named Ed Brandt, who was Reagan’s Head of Health and Human Services, about the AIDS crisis. Brandt was a conservative Southerner, but after connecting with Apuzzo he was so upset at the government’s ill handling of AIDS that he left the White House. Apuzzo learned something from him, too. 

[Virginia Apuzzo] When I said, and we went up the wall of government and had no idea what was on the other side? Well, what’s on the other side are people. Ordinary people, and the capacity to build with them some common ground that makes them want to work with you is a critical, critical element in the equation to create change.² 

[GB] Ed Brandt learned about the AIDS crisis from Ginny, and Ginny learned that government is made up of people, some of which are kind and good.

In the White House, she had to work with people who maybe wouldn’t be too excited to work with an out lesbian who was fighting for people with AIDS, but she was able to command respect, while also being kind and respectful herself. Specifically, because she served as Clinton’s Assistant to the President for Administration and Management, she worked with the military. Instead of experiencing discrimination or disrespect, she received the opposite. 

[VA] Upstairs, I have— it really moves me. Upstairs I have a shadow box […] and in the middle, this plaque that says, “To Virginia Apuzzo, Assistant to the President for Management and Administration, a Crusader for Human Dignity.” This is from military personnel.  So, I met them and grew to respect and love and have enormous regard for their professional contribution. And they met me as a lesbian and as a manager. And that little thing about “crusader for human dignity” or whatever, it’s like that, it was an acknowledgment. We saw you, and we want you to know we care about you in that capacity. It was very moving.³ 

[GB] Apuzzo’s work with the military resulted in meaningful connections and mutual respect. 

Ginny also seemed to be an incredible judge of character. Even if someone seemed to hold conservative views, she tried to see their humanity and appeal to their kindness. At the same time, if someone disrespected her, she wasn’t afraid to put them in their place. During her first week serving as New York Governor Mario Cuomo’s Executive Deputy of Consumer Protection, one of her employees tried to shut her office door during a press conference. Right away, Apuzzo could tell he was trying to hide her away from the press because she was an out lesbian, and she was not going to let that slide. So she had him close the door and she put him in his place so effectively that he cried. But even when yelling at an employee who disrespected her, Ginny saw his humanity. She told him, “I’m your boss, and I’m a dyke. But I’m more than that. You’re more than the jerk you just showed me you were.” Ginny’s kindness did not translate to tolerance for homophobia. 

So, if we asked Ginny if it’s best to make change in the White House or on the streets, she would say both. From her story, though, I think we can learn much more than that. Sometimes, making change is seeing people for who they really are, underneath their niceties or political views. Sometimes it’s noticing which important people are worth your energy, and then connecting with them on a personal level to show them why your cause matters. During the AIDS crisis, when people were dying horrific deaths daily, queer people used mutual aid like blood drives, feeding loved ones, and housing their sick friends. But they also sought change in government. They needed medicine and, ideally, a cure. For that, you need government money and attention. 

Every social justice cause has different goals, which means that every cause will have a different way to achieve their goals. There is never a straightforward answer to the question poised today. But we can look back on the change-makers in the past and learn from their strategies. 

Music begins to fade in for six seconds.

[GB – over music] And from Virginia Apuzzo, I think the most important thing we can learn is that activism can come from a place of kindness and respect, but that doesn’t mean you need to entertain cruelty in return. Kindness doesn’t equal weakness. Respect for others must come from respect for yourself. 

Thank you.

Music plays for eight seconds and then fades out for three seconds.

Virginia Apuzzo. “Voices of Feminism: Virginia Apuzzo.” Video interview by Kelly Anderson. New Palz, New York. June 2-3, 2004. Sophia Smith Collection.

Virginia Apuzzo. “Voices of Feminism: Virginia Apuzzo.” Transcript of video interview by Kelly Anderson. New Palz, New York. June 2-3, 2004. Sophia Smith Collection.

Schulman, Sarah. Introduction of LET the RECORD SHOW: A Political History of Act up New York, 1987-1993. S.L., Picador, 2022.

AIDS related materials, 1980’s. Virginia Apuzzo papers, Sophia Smith Collection of women’s history,
SSC-MS-00711. Box 14. https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/378369

Ringel, Lance. “Ginny Apuzzo: The Lioness in Winter.” Inside out – Hudson Valey, 2004, pp. 40–43. Virginia Apuzzo papers, Sophia Smith Collection of women’s history. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.

American Archive of Public Broadcasting Interview with Virginia Apuzzo: https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_15-z60bv7c42w 

LAMBDA Independent Democrats: https://lidbk.com/

National LGBTQ Task Force: https://www.thetaskforce.org/

‘Another Chicago Magazine’ Virginia Apuzzo Article: https://anotherchicagomagazine.net/2019/11/21/interview-with-ginny-apuzzo/