18(a) Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD

Prototypical answer:

The mission of the .gay TLD is to create an environment on the Internet that addresses important and primary needs of the Gay Community; safety, visibility and support.

Safety : A safe space will encourage more community members to come out and thrive in the .gay network.

The Gay Community is a community centered on individuals whose gender identities and sexual orientation are outside of the norms defined for heterosexual behavior. Individuals of the Gay Community have come out of the shadows with pride and proclaimed their identity, demanding the respect and equal rights due based on international treaties such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as stated by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the Summit of the African Union (January 29, 2012). Yet often these identities are proclaimed at great risk to personal, family or professional safety.

Visibility : To be visible is to be counted and to be counted is to be relevant to society and the economy.

With the participation and endorsement from many of the largest organizations in the global Gay Community, the .gay TLD will enhance the visibility of the Gay Community so that economic and social disparities can be more easily addressed. Greater visibility will also promote greater competition and consumer choice in and amongst the Gay Community. Developing the .gay TLD as a gathering point that establishes our footstep and demonstrates our presence as one larger global community, it becomes the new banner that rallies the diverse elements of the community. As a community whose presence can be quantified and aggregated, we will all be in a better position to be understood and to create real change.

Support : To support the Gay Community with access to trusted resources, as well as with funding.

The Gay Community has long been a largely self-supporting community in all regions of the world. This fact has demanded action on the part of the community to assemble resources and funding in support of causes and initiatives earmarked as priorities in the community, including but not limited to social service, business and support organizations. The .gay TLD will assemble the largest pool of resources from all segments of the community to support and empower the Gay Community, while realizing tangible and sustainable financial benefits that will directly impact how the community tackles any challenge it faces. The struggles and challenges faced by the Gay Community to date reinforce the need to create the .gay TLD as a community-based TLD and as such must support both social and economic imperatives.

Under dotgay LLC’s community-based model for the .gay TLD, 67% of the profits from domain name registrations will be made available to the dotgay Foundation. The dotgay Foundation will be established at the point that ICANN approves dotgay LLC’s .gay application and will have a mission to financially support initiatives in the global Gay Community. Additionally, dotgay LLC will provide a commission to organizations in the Gay Community who act as Authentication Partners, through an incentive program that rewards them for their authentication services and marketing efforts.

Similar gTLD applications: (0)