Dot Gay May be on the Horizon

Move over .com and make way for .gay!

...or .love, .eco, .car, .health, .radio, .ski, etc. In fact, there's a large list of all the possibilities various groups already want to see when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) completes its tasks to implement the new Top level Domains over on the .NXT Conference site. The custom domain will also mean cities and states can have their own top level domain like .nyc or .florida. We may also see brand ones like .coke (.canon and .unicef are already listed).

What's the catch, you may ask? Having your own top level domain like this will be coming with a hefty price tag. $185,000 plus a $25,000 annual fee according to the Washington Post. Pretty big catch! Luckily, the dotGAYalliance and dotGAY will be pushing to have the .gay extension included so we may see eventually sites like hotel.gay, sports.gay, or health.gay popping up.

Unfortunately, as has happened in the past with the Bush Administration stopping the .xxx extension, the Obama administration is quietly pushing to allow countries, including the US, to veto top level domains. Then there's the trouble that having a central domain such as .gay (or any number of potentially controversial extensions like .abortion, .aids, etc) would allow countries who aren't friendly towards a particular subject to block any domain with that extension if it was approved by the ICANN.

Carroll County Man Victim of Possible Hate Crime Arson

Around 5:30 AM on Sunday, a fire was started in the home of Chris Staples sccording to Staple's mother whom lives in the main house on the property. Staples whom is gay and disabled was in the home asleep when it was started, but woke up and got out in time. The fire was started following the receipt of hate mail via a rock through Staples' window and so the incident is being reported as a hate crime.

The note he received, as told to Channel 2 news:

"It said, 'we know you're gay. And God hates gays. You won't be raping anybody in the county and God's going to make sure that you burn in hell.' And something about my daddy... my daddy will make sure you burn in hell,"

Capt. Shane Taylor of the Carroll County Sherriff's office told reporters, ""This is the first time I've dealt with anything of this nature in 16 years." They are still investigating the crime.

However, unfortunately, it doesn't seem as if everyone believes that the fire and note are related if one commenter's post on the coverage by WSB Radio whom posted, "Sorry but I don't buy this story at all" has any volume to other silent voices. Luckily, it's not him who will be investigating such a heinous crime.

Channel 2 has images posted of the damage to the home.