ACTIVISTS WANT WEB DOMAIN FOR GAYS

Gay rights groups in the US and South Africa are pushing for a top level internet domain (TLD) for the LGBT community.

The campaign for a .gay domain name is backed by the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in the US, the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association and South Africa’s Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (SA GLAAD).

They want .gay to be approved for use by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

A TLD or domain name is the highest level of domain names in the root zone of the Domain Name System of the Internet – along the lines of .net or .org.

“The gay community will benefit. The gay community has roughly 15 million members in the United States and tens of millions worldwide. Millions of internet websites are targeted on the gay community. A well managed top level domain .gay will help to connect the gay end user and those who try to reach out to him,” reads a statement on www.dotgay.com.

The website says that it hopes that the new domain will become operational during the latter part of 2010.