Virginia "Ginny" Apuzzo (born June 26, 1941) is an American gay rights and AIDS activist.
Her parents were both working-class Italians; her father owned a gas station and her mother worked at various times as a waitress, factory worker, and salesperson.
She enrolled at the State University of New York at New Paltz, and graduated in 1963 with a Bachelor of Science in History and Education.
"[1] She continued to teach during her time at the convent, both at Cathedral High School in Manhattan and at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx.
[1] By 1979, Apuzzo took a leave of absence from Brooklyn College to serve as the assistant commissioner for operations in the New York City Department of Health.
[2] During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Apuzzo became a frequent lecturer on civil rights at schools including Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia.
[2] In 1984, New York Governor Mario Cuomo appointed Apuzzo to a panel investigating potential discrimination against gay people with regards to state employment, services, and benefits.
[1][2] In 1988, Apuzzo was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law by Queens College, City University of New York.
[5] In 2007, the Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer appointed Apuzzo to the Commission on Public Integrity.