Growing up in New York and New Jersey, Russo was able to experience at first hand gay life in and around Greenwich Village and Fire Island. While working in film distribution in the early 1970s, he became involved in Gay Activist Alliance (GAA); he created the first gay film festivals (1970) and began showing "gay" films at the GAA Firehouse from 1971.

Vito is also a co-founder, Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD); a founding member and a leading activist with ACT UP in the mid-1980's; and a witness to the Stonewall riots of New York in 1968 (perched in a tree across the street).

The 1996 film The Celluloid Closet was based on his book of the same name, a history of homophobia in Hollywood movies. He himself appeared in several documentaries, including Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt (1989). He died of Aids related complications.