Amida Care Proud to Sponsor the 2018 Gay City News Impact Awards

Amida Care joined over 300 attendees on April 26 in Brooklyn for the third annual Gay City News LGBTQ Impact Awards. The event celebrated the many identities of LGBTQ individuals and underscored the need to continue the fight for LGBTQ equality.

Honorees were recognized for their outstanding contributions in advocacy, health care, comedy, politics, art, business, journalism, organizing, and resistance for New York City’s LGBTQ community. Doug Wirth, president and CEO of Amida Care, served as a presenter at the awards. Wirth has led Amida Care for 12 years and has been at the forefront of the fight against HIV/AIDS for decades. Amida Care is a not-for-profit Medicaid health plan that specializes in providing comprehensive health coverage and coordinated care to New Yorkers living with chronic conditions, including HIV, and served as one of the event’s sponsors. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams also attended and made remarks.

Wirth, a 2016 Gay City News LGBTQ Impact Award Winner, was honored to present awards to his colleagues in the field, including Glennda Testone, Executive Director of New York City’s LGBT Community Center; Laura Jacobs, Chair of the Board for Callen-Lorde Community Health Center; Mustafa Sullivan, Executive Director of FIERCE; and Sean Coleman, Founder and Executive Director of Destination Tomorrow. Wirth and the Amida Care team joined in celebrating honorees at allied organizations working to End the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in New York, including Sharen Duke, Executive Director and CEO of the Alliance for Positive Change, and Kelsey Louie, CEO of Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC).

Wirth also presented an award to LaLa Zannell, Lead Organizer at the New York City Anti-Violence Project. Zannell told event attendees that not every trans man and woman’s story includes family rejection, and introduced her mother, who had traveled from Michigan to attend the awards and support her daughter. “When you invest in trans black women, this is what you get,” Zannell said, which was greeted by loud applause.