This week I talked with LGBTQ pioneer activist Virginia (Ginny) Apuzzo who served as Executive Director of the National LGBTQ Task Force from 1982 to 1986. The Task Force is the country’s oldest LGBTQ advocacy group celebrating 50 years of advancing freedom, justice & equality for our LGBTQ community. This milestone year will recognize & celebrate the Task Force’s rich history of driving progress within the LGBTQ community from its early days lobbying the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality as a mental illness & advocating for AIDS funding to longstanding campaigns like Queer the Census, Queer the Vote, working for trans rights, the fight for reproductive justice & bringing an intersectional approach to the LGBTQ movement. The celebration kicks off this month with their Creating Change Conference from Friday February 17th to Tuesday February 21st in San Francisco, CA at the Hilton Hotel Union Square. This year’s theme is “The State of the Movement: Our Past. Our Present. Our Future”. Creating Change is the foremost political, leadership & skills-building conference for our LGBTQ social justice movement. The event will include speakers Angelica Ross, activist X Gonzalez & more TBA. Then the 50th celebration will continue next month in Miami Beach, FL at the 30th Annual Winter Party Festival with this year’s theme “Live Free Play Hard Give Back” that takes place Wednesday March 1st to Tuesday March 7th. Other events related to the 50th celebration will include the Task Force Gala on October 22nd its premier annual celebration of South Florida’s LGBTQ community with more details to be announced as they are confirmed. I talked to Ginny about what it was like when she led the National LGBTQ Task Force in the 1980’s & her spin on our LGBTQ issues.
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