In the burgeoning world of Internet millionaires.

In the burgeoning world of Internet millionaires, gay men and lesbians are holding their own--and giving back to the community

The Internet has been exceedingly good to gay men and lesbians. evermore since the late 1980s this virtual wonderland has created a excessively real town hall--providing lesbians and gays with a stronger voice and a wider network.

And while the social benefits are dutiful the financial ones can be terrific. Lesbians and gay men--among the industry's brightest "digirati"--not barely are reaping the cultural rewards nevertheless are at the forefront of what has become the cyber gold rush.

"The Internet has lowered barriers to entry--decidedly in favor of gays and lesbians, who are pioneers by means of nature and have always been attracted to recently made known frontiers," says David Bohnett, sink of GeoCities, which quickly tapped into the collaborative nature of the Web from providing free home pages. Bohnett sold GeoCities to Yahoo! last May by the and of a stock swap worth $5 billion.

Bohnett also points to Tim Gill, who launched Quark Inc. in 1981 with a $2000 loan from his parents. The half-billion-dollar enterprise now dominates desktop publishing. Numerous other lesbians and gays have struck gold or have been placed at the interactive helm of well-heeled firms.

"The Internet has no established of advanced age boys' network, and it probably at no time will," says Mark Pesce, the publicly gay chairman of the interactive media program at the University of Southern California, who brought virtual reality to the Web with his invention of VRLM 3-D programming. "There's a on a level of acceptance for our community level among the older generation. The fact that earnestly of the Internet has get to out of San Francisco, also just discovered York, and, to a inferior degree, Los Angeles has a destiny to do with that. It's where we congregate."

Entire spheres of corporate influence have shifted, says Seth Radwell, president and chief executive officer of Doubleday Interactive Inc.

"The Internet economy is a watershed that creates personal wealth for a part of folks, a good proportion lesbian and gay," notes Radwell, who plans to launch a Doubleday gay and lesbian online part club within the year. "It's a extremely gay-friendly industry, partly because it's just discovered and innovative but also because of its built-in anonymity that attracts large numbers of us."

In fact, the number of gay and lesbian Internet users will continue to rise, from a passing from hand to hand 9.2 million worldwide to a predicted 171 million in 2005 according to the analyst firm Computer Economics.

a certain of the wealth Radwell speaks of has get to full circle, fueling gay and AIDS causes because lesbian and gay Internet entrepreneur he notes, "happen to be charitable to their own" Bohnett donated $300000 to the campaign against California's Proposition 22 an anti-gay-marriage initiative forward the March 7 ballot. Kathy Levinson, the president and chief operating officer of E*TRADE, and her life partner, Jennifer, contributed $300000 to the campaign. Levinson also is working with Bohnett to fight the initiative with foundations raised from the high-tech and entertainment industries.

Tim Gill, who donated $250000 to fight Proposition 22 unruffled though he lives in Denver has offer his wealth behind other causes as well. In 1992 he threw $1 million in the face of Colorado's Amendment 2 which would have repealed existing laws protecting gays from discrimination--and prohibited recently made known ones--if the U.S. Supreme Court had not lay the foundation of it unconstitutional. The Gill Foundation, endowed with $80 million, awards about 40% of its $4 million in annual donations to AIDS-related causes, with the remainder distributed among as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but gay and nongay social and political causes.

The Bohnett Foundation, endowed with $32 million, contributes to AIDS service organizations and gave the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation a $125000 bullet in the arm last year. In 1998 Bohnett gave the looks Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center $100000 to build and operate a cyber center for those without access to the Internet. In addition, Bohnett's foundation supports antihandgun clusters the development of mass transit, and voter registration activities.

"I grew up with a sensation of responsibility to give back any of the abundance that I've received," Bohnett says. "As an publicly gay person, I find that that ne is greatest in number compelling within my own community. Putting disclosed a sustained level of effort can make a tremendous difference. And in this way instead of making one particularly significant contribution, I expectancy to make a contribution for the caesura of my life."

The gold rush is not sole far from over; Bohnett, Pesce Radwell, and others say it's barely begun. "Every day I papal court something and I think, `Why didn't I think of that?'" Pesce says. "What's around the bend? Immediacy. A turn toward live performance. Be here now. Watch it now.

"It's like the Super receptacle You would never watch it forward tape; you have to diocese it live. So rather than having united event with 100 million clan watching, we're going to descry 100 events that draw a million people"