Virginia Apuzzo

Virginia "Ginny" Apuzzo (born June 26, 1941) is an American gay rights and AIDS activist. She is a former executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force. She served as executive deputy of the New York State Consumer Protection Board and as the vice chair of the New York State AIDS Advisory Council. She was also President of the New York State Civil Service Commission and Commissioner of the New York State Department of Civil Service. In 1996, she became the Associate Deputy Secretary of Labor at the United States Department of Labor, and in 1997 she became the Assistant to the President for Management and Administration under the Clinton administration. In 2007, she began serving on the Commission on Public Integrity, where she worked until her retirement.

Early life and education Virginia Apuzzo was born in the Bronx in New York City on June 26, 1941. 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.

When Apuzzo was 26, she became a nun at the Sisters of Charity, a convent in the Bronx. By this time, she knew she was a lesbian. She later recounted her experience, saying "I tried to play by the rules. I thought I'd have to live my life with this deep dark secret." She also said, "I stayed [at the convent for] three years searching for answers to fundamental questions... I thought of my religious life as temporary. I didn't know whether it would take one year or twenty years to explore the morality of my homosexual identity." In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed Apuzzo as Assistant to the President for Management and Administration.

In 2007, the Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer appointed Apuzzo to the Commission on Public Integrity. She worked in this role until her retirement.