Approve dot-gay, ICANN told

DNS overseer ICANN has been told to approve the dot-gay internet extension in a new letter sent to its board.

A 62-page report [PDF] written by Professor William Eskridge – a world expert in sexuality, gender, and the law from Yale Law School – tears apart the organization's "independent" report and highlights "fundamental errors in the EIU's [Economist Intelligence Unit's] reasons for denying dotgay's community status."

The long-running saga over approval of the application's "community" status changed again when a recent decision that went against the ICANN board undermined the organization's repeated refusal to review the report from the EIU.

"At no point in dotgay's recourse to ICANN's accountability processes from 2014 to date has the board scrutinized the CPE Report for consistency with the principles of fairness, transparency and non-discrimination," said an accompanying cover letter sent by the lawyers of the applicant.

The EIU has twice rejected the application, the first time because it decided the application did not cover a sufficient number of gay people, and the second time because it tried to cover too many people. The application itself was unchanged.

A third appeal to ICANN to review the report was due to be discussed by its board earlier this month, but was put off until October. ®