Everyone’s heard of .com, .edu, .net, .gov, but what about .gay? Well if the Dot Gay Alliance  has its way, .gay could be a new top level domain as early as next year.

The organization will present its plan at an internet conference in Seoul next week, and then bring its proposal to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers early next year.

The idea is that the .gay domain would create a new internet community “of self-identified gay businesses, individuals and organizations” that gives 51 percent of its profits to the LGBT community through grants to civil rights organizations.

“That means that everyone who owns a .gay web address automatically contributes to the fight for LGBT equal rights in the US and around the world,” the Web site says.

The organization also hopes the .gay domain will  concentrate Internet real estate for companies and groups to showcase their gay efforts. “In a few years, it will be natural for every company that speaks or sells to the GLBT population to have a .GAY in addition to their .COM or .ORG addresses.”

“The .GAY namespace will open up the possibility of getting a meaningful domain name. This means that the millions of registrants who have been “shut out” of .COM by speculative domain holders who have quite literally bought every .COM name in the dictionary will have a new alternative. Instead of paying thousands of dollars in the secondary market for a reasonable .COM address, users will be able to find the same name in the .GAY namespace at a fraction of the cost.”

For more information, visit dotgayalliance.com.

— Theresa Bruskin