Dawson, Barr and Cain make IoS's Rainbow list

Authors James Dawson, Damian Barr and Matt Cain are listed in the Independent on Sunday’s Rainbow list of the top 101 LGBT people, published yesterday (9th November).
 
Both Cain and Dawson are new entries this year, with Cain taking the number 62 spot and Dawson coming in at 82.
 
Cain is the former culture editor at Channel 4 and his novel Shot Through the Heart (Pan Macmillan) puts “realistic, happy gay characters centre-stage”, said the newspaper. Dawson made the list for his non-fiction YA title This Book is Gay, a guide to life as an LGBT person published by Hot Key Books.
 
Barr moved up the list this year, from 92 to 72, and is a “popular figure on the bookish scene thanks to his irreverently intellectual literary salon”. He is also the author of Maggie and Me, (Bloomsbury) about his experience growing up in a workin-class Scottish town during the Thatcher years and coming to terms with his sexuality.
 
Paul Burston, author and founder of the Polari First Book Prize, made the list at number 95.
 
Other published writers that made the list are: Owen Jones, journalist and author of Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class (Verso) in 12th position; Mikey Walsh, author of Gypsy Boy (Hodder) in at 70th; and former rugby international Gareth Thomas, whose autobiography Proud was published by Ebury in September at 35th.

The Independent on Sunday chose the list from 4,390 public nominations and said: “The result honours those who have long and brave histories of standing up for equal rights, even when equality wasn’t even legal, as well as youngsters whose openness in the past year shows children (and adults) that who they are and whom they love need not be a barrier to success in any walk of life.”