Groups Compete for Gay Internet Suffix

Could Gay.com one day become Gay.gay? The question arises as two competing proposals for a ".gay" Internet suffix converge on a meeting in South Korea with the group that creates top-level domains.

The proposals for a .gay Internet suffix come from two for-profit groups that plan on funneling the domain's earnings toward gay causes, according to The New York Times City Room blog.

The Dot Gay Alliance is led by Joe Dolce, a longtime gay activist in New York; and dotGay is headed by a straight German man, Alexander Schubert, in Latvia who incorporated his company in San Francisco.

"While both groups have left open the possibility of cooperating, they haven't yet joined forces," reported City Room. "Both groups say they plan on starting the application process with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, to create top-level domains, akin to .com, .edu, .org, and .net."

The application process with ICANN costs upwards of $400,000. Boths group are attending an ICANN meeting in Seoul, South Korea, that starts today.

For now, the bulk of the gay community's support appears to be going toward Dolce and his Dot Gay Alliance. Attorney Paula Ettelbrick serves as a philanthropic adviser, and New York City Council speaker Christine Quinn and New York state assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, both out legislators, wrote letters in support of the Dot Gay Alliance.