Attitude 101: 2026: Here are the 10 influential figures who made our ‘Third Sector & Community’ list

This year’s rising stars of Attitude 101, empowered by Bentley are showcasing the next generation of LGBTQ+ talent making change in the community.

The selection spans 10 sectors: Business; Fashion, Art & Design; Financial & Legal; Film, TV, and Music; Media & Broadcast; STEM; Sport; The Future (Under 25), supported by Clifford Chance; Third Sector & Community; and Travel, supported by Booking.com.

Below are the 10 young LGBTQ+ changemakers who are already reshaping their industries, who we’ve honoured on this year’s Third Sector & Community list.

Category leader: Suki Sandhu OBE

Suki Sandhu OBE studied a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Economics at the University of Birmingham, before joining global recruitment agency Michael Page on a graduate scheme in 2003. In 2011, he founded Audeliss, a recruitment agency for executive and board appointments that specifically represents ethnically diverse talent, LGBTQ+ communities, and women. In 2013, he founded INvolve, a consultancy and global network that started out by producing a top-50 LGBTQ+ executive list in the Financial Times. Sandhu is also the author of the 2022 book How to Get Your Act Together and Stonewall Ambassador and a patron of the youth homelessness charity, akt (formerly Albert Kennedy Trust).

Simon Carmichael 

Based in Northern Ireland, Simon Carmichael transitioned from a background in trade union activism and organisation to working in counselling. They now manage Belfast organisation The Rainbow Project’s co-cultural counselling service, which provides LGBTQ+ people with access to LGBTQ+ counsellors. As an openly transfeminine and neurodivergent therapist, they have a keen interest in the intersecting needs of LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent people, as well as what psychology and philosophy can teach us about diverse human experiences.

Sabah Choudrey 

In 2013, award-winning activist Sabah Choudrey co-founded Trans Pride Brighton, the UK’s first trans Pride event. They have spent a decade working with trans youth at Gendered Intelligence, and co-founded Colours Youth Network. Now, they serve as a Middlesex Pride director and vice chair of the Inclusive Mosque Initiative. A psychotherapist, wellbeing practitioner and equality, diversity and inclusion consultant, Choudrey was featured on the Diversity Power List 2025. Their TEDx talk, “Brown, Trans, Muslim and Proud”, has 103K+ views, and they’re the proud author of 2022 book Supporting Trans People of Colour.

Dominic Davies

Based in the UK, Dominic Davies specialises in Gender, Sex and Relationship Diversity (GSRD). The founding director of Pink Therapy, he is internationally recognised as a pioneer in GSRD mental health and has co-edited six British textbooks advancing inclusive practice. In 2018, Davies was recognised for his lifetime achievements with the Sexual Freedom Awards’ coveted Flying Golden Penis. In 2021, the University of Minnesota’s Program in Human Sexuality named him as one of 50 “Distinguished Sexual and Gender Health Revolutionaries” for shaping contemporary queer and trans health and wellbeing.

Eva Echo

Focusing on trans+ rights, eating disorders and neurodiversity, Eva Echo uses her personal struggles to highlight shared experiences and to campaign for change while creating unity through intersectionality. Most notably, Echo took legal action against NHS England in the High Court to challenge the unlawful waiting times for trans+ patients. She was also involved in a tribunal brought by a Metropolitan Police officer about the Trans Day of Visibility event Echo helped deliver. When the Met officer lost the case, it was seen as an important win for the community, as well as for diversity and inclusion and freedom of speech.

Jason Jones 

Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Jason Jones’s activism began in 1996, when he joined the board of the Stonewall Immigration Group (now Rainbow Migration). In 1997, in what was the first pro-LGBTQ+ legislation in the UK post decriminalisation, the group won the right for overseas partners of LGBTQ+ UK citizens to apply to remain in the UK. In 2018, Jones won a landmark legal challenge at the High Court of Trinidad and Tobago which decriminalised adult consensual same-sex intimacy in the Caribbean nation. The victory has been appealed by the government of Trinidad and Tobago and will be heard by the privy council in London. 

Bernárd Lynch

Bernárd Lynch has worked for LGBTQ+ rights for 50 years. In 1982, he founded New York City’s first AIDS ministry, as documented in Channel 4’s AIDS: A Priest’s Testament. His advocacy led to a false prosecution by church and government officials in 1989 – he was found innocent of all charges. In 1992, he became the first mainline priest to march in Pride in London, and later led the first Irish LGBTQ+ group in London’s St Patrick’s Day parade. In recognition of his commitment to human rights, Lynch has received the Magnus Hirschfeld Award, Ireland’s Presidential Distinguished Service Award and, in 2025, the Freedom of the City of London. 

Silva Neves

An award-winning psychotherapist, author and international speaker, Silva Neves is dedicated to advocating for better mental health and sexual health services for queer people. His extensive body of published work aims to challenge heteronormative assumptions within the psychological and sexual healthcare professions, focusing on those that pathologise and harm sexually marginalised populations, including sex workers, kinky and queer people. His sex-positive mission is to help queer people live authentic lives free from societal shame and oppression, so that they not only survive prejudice but thrive, full of queer joy.  

Sue Sanders

Sue Sanders is an activist and educator and Emeritus Professor of the Harvey Milk Institute. An “out and proud” lesbian, in 2004 Sanders and Paul Patrick co-founded the UK’s LGBT History Month, which takes place every February. Sanders is a proponent of an inclusive and relevant curriculum in education and works to “educate out” all forms of prejudice. In 2007, she was responsible for The Classroom, an initiative with lesson plans that “usualise” LGBTQ+ people in all their diversity across the curriculum. She has also worked extensively in the criminal justice system, attempting to challenge hate crime in all its forms.

Marc Svensson

A published social scientist, researcher and public speaker, Marc Svensson founded You Are Loved in 2024 in response to alarming death rates from suicide and drugs in the LGBTQ+ community. His organisation addresses the root causes of poor mental health and drug misuse, while also helping queer people find support and community. After Svensson appeared in several chemsex documentaries in 2025, You Are Loved’s 2026 projects include a 12-city UK tour of queer play Smoke, with a panel discussion after each performance. A unique chemsex partnership campaign will also take place.

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The full Attitude 101 list appears in issue 369 of Attitude magazine, available to buy now in print, on the Attitude app, or through Apple News+.