Two groups are working to set up a .gay top-level Internet domain, with plans for using some of the proceeds for registering sites in that domain to support gay causes, according to an article in the New York Times.

While it can cost up to $400,000 to set up a new top-level domain, companies compete for control, because the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees the development and management of the Internet’s unique identifiers, awards the registry rights to just one applicant for each new top-level domain, which can result in millions of dollars per year, the Times said.

Currently, the two groups are competing for the right to apply by each claiming to be more gay than the other. "The Dot Gay Alliance (dotgay.org), out of New York City, is being led by a longtime gay activist," the Times said. "And dotGay (dotgay.com) is being spearheaded by a heterosexual German man in Riga, Latvia, who has incorporated a company in San Francisco."

The Dot Gay Alliance points out that it is run by a gay man, while dotGay points out that it is based in San Francisco and that its head has experience setting up new top-level domains.

Neither of the for-profit groups has said what percentage of revenues it would commit for gay causes, though Joe Dolce, founder and executive director of the Dot Gay Alliance, spoke favorably of Al Gore's declaration that he would support a particular group's right to the .eco top-level domain -- where a similar fight is taking place -- only if half the proceeds went to environmental causes.