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Coming Online: ’Dot-Gay?’by Kilian MelloyFriday Oct 23, 2009 The "dot-com" revolution may not have lived up to its early hype as soon as some would have liked, but the power of the Internet is undisputed, and will only grow greater. For some, that’s an open invitation to forge stronger community links online--including customized domain designations. For the GLBT community, which has found the Internet to be a powerful took for outreach, education, and community building, the promise of the "dot-com" might be fulfilled by a new domain suffix: "dot-gay," or, as those promoting the idea call it, .GAY.
One group in particular, the Dot Gay Alliance, is talking up the idea of a GLBT domain identifiable by its suffix. The group is expected to take part in a conference in Seoul, Korea, next week, at which, according to a press release from the group, a strategy will be revealed "to create the .GAY top-level domain that will provide a reliable and ethical source of funding for LGBT civil rights."
The release details how organizers envision an online world in which "Website names and email addresses ending in .GAY--such as www.yourbusinessname.gay, www.londonbars.gay, www.news.gay, and millions more--will create a new Internet community of self-identified LGBT businesses, individuals and organizations and all those who wish to communicate with them. And .GAY will be a community that gives back: A majority of all profits will be returned to the LGBT community to fight for equality in the US and around the world."
The release included a quote from Dot Gay Alliance executive director Joe Dolce, who explained the practical and philosophical underpinnings of the idea. "The LGBT community has always supported itself and its causes--no one was there to help us. We’ve made amazing progress in the 40 years since Stonewall. Now in the digital era a .GAY top-level domain is a logical evolution in our history of self sustenance."
An Oct. 23 New York Times article reported that Dolce’s group is not the only one pursuing a gay-specific suffix: a German entrepreneur operating out of Latvia has also established a company, called dotGay, which is based in San Francisco.
Either or both of the new domain suffixes could generate millions, the article noted, quoting Dolce as saying, "This could be a significant source of funding for organizations fighting, doing very good, important work." Added Dolce, ""It’s a very novel way that doesn’t involve putting your hand out, doesn’t involve another benefit or charity function." Dolce, who lost a number of friends to the AIDS epidemic, noted, "This is a community that has to sustain itself. There was very little help from the outside world, very little help from the government."
Though the German businessman is straight, his company, too, has plans to provide GLBT causes with cash. Before he created dotGay, Alexander Schubert created the domain .berlin; then he thought that a domain for GLBTs seemed like a good idea. Schubert told The New York Times, "All these years, I thought about the perfect top-level domain. I came to the conclusion that it should be community like the gay community." And though he says that, "I am personally not gay," Shubert pointed to the place of his origins to explain his pro-GLBT sentiments: "I am born and raised in Berlin, which is the gay capital of Europe."
Dolce weighed in on the idea of a straight entrepreneur aiming to claim the same, or similar, online turf, saying, "If you are launching a purely for-profit venture called dotGay and you are heterosexual, then you are in a way continuing a legacy of straight people earning a lot of money off of gay people that has gone on." For his part, "I want to create a community which is run by the community and gives money back to the community."
As to the suffix itself, Dolce chose .gay over .glbt for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that "gay is a nice three-letter word, which fits Internet naming convention."
Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, where he also serves as Assistant Arts Editor.
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