About the .GAY new gTLD

.gay domains will be THE intuitive link and UMBRELLA identity for the LGBT community to build business and organizational excellence via inter-networking globally.

Alexander Schubert, was the first individual to present .gay to ICANN. The German –born businessman recognized early how gTLDs could create added value for the LGBT community and established dotgay LLC while simultaneously developing the .gay application for ICANN. Schubert also immediately recognized that ownership and stewardship of the community domain space would need to be in the hands of the LGBT community.

"Once the concept for .gay could be touched and experienced I looked for partners with the right background and deep rooting within the LGBT community to take it over," says Schubert. "That person was Scott Seitz, founder of SPI Marketing, a leading LGBT agency with over 15 years of service on behalf of corporate and non-profit clients."

After becoming CEO and 90% owner of dotgay LLC in 2009, Seitz proceeded with plans to outline ways in which .gay could grow into something of value for the LGBT community that would both serve and directly benefit the LGBT community. With the mandate of building business and organizational excellence via inter-networking at a global level, the decision was made that key community names (like health.gay, lesbian.gay, center.gay, bar.gay) would not be sold off to the highest bidder, but instead be used to help organize, network and index the LGBT community with 67% of profits going to a dotgay foundation to donate back.

Benefits of a .gay domain name

The dotgay LLC pledge is that the development of commercial potential of the proposed .gay gTLD will be secondary to ensuring usefulness and relevance to the community. Seitz explains, "The model of making high profile landing pages like health.gay, Lesbian.gay, Trans.gay and Center.gay available to the community at large is critical to creating space for each segment of LGBTQAI and establishing .gay as a vibrant hub that can serve the needs of the global community while also keeping important property out of the hands of opportunistic squatters and speculators."

Even more critically, dotgay LLC's proposed hybrid non-profit/for-profit business plan for .gay would also see 67% of the profits be redistributed back to the LGBT community through a not-for profit foundation that will directly benefit from any financial gains made by the sale of any .gay domains. Seitz says, "In the long term, dotgay LLC will focus on developing .gay as a means to support and build the community versus just selling domain names."

Who is dotgay LLC?

Formed in 2009, dotgay is the LGBT owned and operated originator of a landmark proposal to create a .gay domain-extension on the Internet.

To date, dotgay LLC remains the only visible community applicant for the .gay gTLD that is both rooted in the LGBT community and that has a long history of work within the LGBT community. Support for dotgay LLC has grown to over 7 million strong worldwide, with endorsements from International Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex Association (ILGA), Human Rights Campaign, International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA), International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), InterPride, CenterLink and the Canadian Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (CGLCC) among others.

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Secure your chance to own one of the upcoming new top-level domains by pre-registering your desired domain name now.

We will attempt to register your reserved domains as soon as this becomes possible thereby increasing your chances of owing one of the new TLDs.

Additionally, by pre-registering, you won't miss any of the registration deadlines. The pre-registration process is free; no processing fees will apply.

Only in the case that you do wish to register any reserved domains will you be charged a fee. Unfortunately there is no guarantee that we can successfully register all desired, pre-registered domains.

» Visit new gTLD FAQ page.