The list was started in 2000 to recognise individuals in public life who are openly gay, but has since grown to "[honour] those who have long and brave histories of standing up for equal rights".
[2] Janet Street-Porter, then editor of the paper, wrote in 2012 that she started the list at the time "to celebrate the huge contribution [that gay people] make to every aspect of modern life".
[2] The first edition as the Rainbow List was topped by Labour Peer and former actor Michael, Baron Cashman.
[1] Stephen Fry criticised the list in 2010 for its portrayal of Louie Spence as a "gay stereotype", whose 15 minutes of fame was already running out.
[4][5] Fry later stated that he had been told that the section in which Spence appeared, the "Rogue's Gallery", had been written separately by a journalist "without the deliberators' knowledge or consent.