Dot Gay Vs. Dot Gay

Bilerico's Nathan Strang lays out the fight to control the new .gay top level domains. One of the companies is owned by a gay philanthropist, the other by a well known domain kingpin.

The Dot Gay Alliance's mission is "to create a reliable and ethical source of funding for LGBT Civil Rights by creating the .GAY web address for the benefit of our community." Founder Joe Dolce promises that at least 51% of the .gay domain purchases under his control will go to benefit philanthropic LGBT causes. Dot Gay Alliance is currently trying to raise as much money as possible in order to foot the bill of $185,000 to register with ICANN. However, with an opponent also looking to register .gay, the rights could go to auction, boosting the registration price to hundreds of thousands of dollars. DotGay LLC, has a very similar purpose, though its founder is a heterosexual man. Alexander Schubert is a European businessman who also pledges to donate two-thirds of the profit to LGBT causes if his company wins the rights to .gay. However, unlike the Dot Gay Alliance, Schubert's investment in .gay is far more commercial than philanthropic.

(Image by Nathan Strang)