.gay

Status:	Proposed
Type:	Community gTLD
Category:	Culture
Community:	LGBT community
Priority #:	179 - dotgay LLC 725 - Top Level Design 1089 - Demand Media (United TLD Holdco Ltd.) 1428 - Top Level Domain Holdings
More information:

.gay is a new generic top level domain name (gTLD) proposal to ICANN. The proposed .gay string is dedicated for the LGBT community.

Current Applicants

1. Demand Media (United TLD Holdco Ltd.)
2. dotgay LLC - Community Application
3. Top Level Design
4. Top Level Domain Holdings

Application Details

dotGay LLC

Scott Seitz is the CEO of dotgay LLC and selected Neustar to provide back-end registry services. The company is affiliated with the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA), National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) and the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, New York (NGLCCNY). dotgay LLC plans to donate 67% of the revenue generated from the sales of .gay domain names to non-profit LGBT organizations. Its application is a Community Application

Their registration policies will include participation by "authentication partners", which will be gay and lesbian membership organization, ".gay is restricted to members of the Gay Community. Eligibility is determined through formal membership with any of dotgay LLC’s Authentication Partners (AP) from the community." Generic terms, such as "travel", will be reserved at the second level to create community resources, i.e. "travel.gay".

In December 2012 dotGAY LLC began accepting applications from organizations interested in becoming Authentication Partners, despite the fact that the TLD remains in contention.

Top Level Design

Raymond King, CEO of Top Level Design together with his business associate Peter Brual are applying for 10 gTLDs including .gay. Raymond is also the founder & director of ICANNWiki and CEO of Aboutus.org. King assured the presentation and neutrality of ICANNWiki.com will not be affected by his business venture on new gTLDs. CentralNic will provide back-end registry services for the company.

Top Level Domain Holdings

The company confirmed that .gay is one of the 68 gTLD strings it is applying on its own behalf.

Dot Gay Alliance

It seems the previously announced Dot Gay Alliance is defunct, as it did not apply for the TLD under this name.

Possible GAC Objections

A report from Time Techland quoted a statement from Milton Mueller, a Syracuse University professor and ICANN expert, that the contenders for the .gay TLD might face objections among the members of ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) from conservative Arab nations. Mueller's statement reads, "It is clear from conversations with government officials in a couple of conservative Arab countries that they object to .gay."

Saudi Arabia's Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) filed an objection against the TLD, citing that "Many societies and cultures consider homosexuality to be contrary to their culture, morality or religion. The creation of a gTLD string which promotes homosexuality will be offensive to these societies and cultures. We respectfully request that Icann refuse the application for this gTLD."

Top-Level Domain

Governmental Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN as they relate to concerns of governments, particularly matters where there may be an interaction between ICANN's policies and various laws and international agreements or where they may affect public policy issues (ICANN Bylaws).