The Dream
The internet wasn’t built for us — but we’ve always been here. From the earliest message boards to today’s queer corners of social media, we’ve carved out spaces of joy, solidarity, and resistance. But those spaces are fragile: reliant on platforms we don’t control, vulnerable to censorship, or priced out of reach.
That’s why we’re building .meow — queer-owned, queer-operated, and designed to turn internet infrastructure into long-term, sustainable support for queer people worldwide.
Why Now
For the first time, ICANN has opened a formalised Applicant Support Program, which helps nonprofits and organizations from marginalized contexts apply for their own top-level domains. This is only the second time it has been possible to apply for a gTLD and the ASP is the only reason it’s even financially possible to bring .meow to life.
We had the idea in 2023; the window opened in 2024. Call it luck, call it fate — either way, the moment is now.
Why It Matters
Queer rights are under attack globally, even as our visibility increases. Community spaces — online and off — are shrinking or being pushed into commercial silos. We want to reverse that trend by funding projects that sustain queer life in all its forms:
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Seed capital for new venues and community hubs.
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Funding for queer-owned businesses, non-profits and grassroots groups.
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Support for advocacy, lobbying, and (legal permitting) mutual aid for individuals in crisis.
Every domain registered under .meow helps fuel that work. Domains are small commitments — cheap, fun, flexible — but pooled together they become a continuous engine for grants and community resilience.
Why Not .gay or .lgbt?
We’re not the first queer TLD, but we are different. Where .gay donates 20% of proceeds to two large charities, .meow is structured so that every cent beyond operating costs goes back to queer communities.
Unlike .lgbt — owned by a for-profit registry that manages hundreds of domains — .meow exists only for this purpose. And while .gay can feel loud or limiting, .meow is playful and versatile — a subtle signal of solidarity, a wink to those in the know. We want it to become shorthand for "this person or org has our backs."
Why .meow?
Because we miss when the internet was weird and joyful. Back in the Web 1.0 days, the net was for cats, porn, and whatever silly thing you wanted to share with strangers. We want to reclaim that spirit:
Run a blog no one reads.
Host a livestream of your cats.
Grab a punny fediverse handle.
Build something small, joyful, unapologetically yours.
Infrastructure can be boring — but it doesn’t have to be. .meow is infrastructure for queer joy.