DIVA Power List 2023 CAMPAIGNER
Char Bailey
Autism & LGBTQIA campaigner @char_bailey_
Char is an award-winning facilitator and a director at Birmingham Pride UK, autism advocate within the LGBTQIA community and board member at Neurodiversity In Business. She is also involved with organising UK Black Pride as their education and inclusion officer.
Eva Echo
Activist, writer & public speaker @evaech0
Eva Echo is a transgender and mental health activist, writer and public speaker, drawing on her own experiences as an East Asian trans woman. She is director of innovation at Birmingham Pride and a director at Trans In The City. Eva sits on the Crown Prosecution Service’s hate crime panel.
Jack Monroe
Food writer & journalist @BootstrapCook
Jack is a British food writer and journalist, campaigning for poverty and hunger relief issues, who rose to prominence through their blog, A Girl Called Jack, now renamed Cooking On A Bootstrap, where inexpensive recipes are shared. They have campaigned alongside organisations such as Unite and Oxfam.
Katie Neeves
Founder of Cool2BTrans #KatieNeeves @cool2btrans
Katie formed Cool2BTrans to advocate for trans visibility through her media appearances, public speaking, blogs and training courses, drawing motivation from her own journey. Her mission is to inspire other trans people and to educate everyone else about trans issues by sharing her story using the power of humour.
Mikaela Loach
Climate justice activist @mikaelaloach
Based in Edinburgh, Jamaican born Mikaela is a climate justice activist who is also the author of It’s Not That Radical, a call-to-action book to transform the world. With over 100,000 followers on Instagram, she uses her voice to make the climate movement more inclusive and accessible.
Nancy Kelley
Chief executive officer, Stonewall @Nancy_M_K
Nancy is the chief executive of Stonewall, the organisation behind the global movement campaigning for LGBTQIA+ human rights. Her career has focused on social justice, and she holds degrees in English from the universities of Bristol and Cambridge, and in Law from the University of London.
Phyll Opoku- Gyimah
LGBTQIA political activist @MsLadyPhyll
The LGBTQIA political activist better known as Lady Phyll has dedicated her life to racial, gender and queer equity. She is the co-founder and executive director of UK Black Pride and the executive director of Kaleidoscope Trust. Lady Phyll is a force within UK politics, campaigning publicly as a Black lesbian and highlighting the importance of intersectionality.
Sue Sanders
LGBTQIA rights activist @suesanders03
For over 50 years, British LGBTQIA rights activist Sue has challenged all forms of oppression. As chair of Schools OUT UK, which aims is to visibilise LGBTQIA people in all their diversity, she also co-founded LGBT+ History Month and The Classroom, a website which provides resources on LGBTQIA issues for use across the curriculum.
Valentino Vecchietti
Intersex consultant, writer, creative & founder of Intersex Equality Rights UK @ValentinoInter
Writer and artist Valentino created the Intersex- Inclusive Pride flag in 2021. She is the founder of Intersex Equality Rights UK, an intersex-led organisation working to create systemic change for support and inclusion in schools, universities and workplaces. She is also a diversity speaker and consultant advocating for intersex visibility and representation.
Spotlight on...
Munroe Bergdorf
Model, author & activist @munroebergdorf
Munroe is a model and LGBTQIA activist. Motivated to become a model after witnessing the lack of diversity in the industry, Munroe was the first transgender woman to model for L’Oréal. Similarly, in 2022, she became the first transgender woman to appear on the cover of Cosmopolitan UK, having been named their Changemaker of the Year in 2018, a trailblazing move for trans visibility. She has been an active voice for trans people, becoming the face of Illamasqua’s Beauty Spotlight campaign in 2017, highlighting gender fluidity. In 2019, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Brighton for her work towards furthering trans rights and was appointed as a National Advocate for UN Women UK. In 2021, she was recognised with the GAY TIMES Honour for British Community Trailblazer. Munroe is a proud ambassador for gender-diverse and transgender youth charity Mermaids and has spoken at various international panels on gender, inclusivity and race – from Oxford to Princeton universities. Her memoir, Transitional: In One Way Or Another, We All Transition was published earlier this year.
