Well known for it’s commitment in representing GLBT and allied businesses since 1979 the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce has had its work recognised by The Stonewall Democrat Club who last week awards it the Sheldon Andelson Business Award.

Collected by the Vice President Anthony Vulin, the award was presented by Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz at the 2010 Stoney Awards which took place at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Universal City, California.

Speaking about the award Vulin said:

“The LAGLCC is honored to have received this award from the Stonewall Democrats,” 

“We were thrilled and inspired to be in the company of so many great leaders in our community.”

Now having been in existence for over 30 years, the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (LAGLCC) brings together  gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and gay-allied businesses, professionals, and individuals to work towards positive growth in the community now and into the future. Built around the idea of support, members of the LAGLCC are well know for building long term relationships through evening mixers, networking breakfasts, educational workshops, quarterly dinners and joint activities with other organizations and community involvement.

Other attendees of the awards included Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-CA), California State Assembly Member Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), Los Angeles City Councilmembers Bill Rosendahl and Paul Krekorian, and West Hollywood Mayor Abbe Land and councilmembers John Heilman, Jeff Prang and Lindsey Horvath. The Master of Ceremonies was Rodney Scott, president of Christopher Street West/Los Angeles Pride.

Acting as a way for the Stonewall Democratic Club to recognize and thank the work of leaders in the LGBT community and progrressive politics, the Stoney Awards also act as an important way to build the resources necessary to elect progressive Democrats and to continue the fight for marriage equality, universal healthcare, a just economy and state budget, and quality education.

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157-LAGLCC Vice President Anthony Vulin (L) accepting the Stonewall Democratic Club’s Sheldon Andelson Business Award with LAGLCC member JD Disalvatore (C) and Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz (R).

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At 24 years of age, young, hot New York entrepreneur Eyal Feldman set out to create a personal male lubricant that would be as slick and long-lasting as silicon-based lubricants and clean up as easily as those that are water-based.

He found his answer in a vegetable oil and silicone fusion-based product he termed Boy Butter. Becoming an instant hit, Boy Butter became an instant hit  gaining mainstream popularity, and earning the brand coverage in places such as Saturday Night Live, Tonight Show with Jay Leno, MadTV, Comedy Central’s Daily Show and Talk Soup on E!.

Seven years later, Boy Butter  continues a one-man show, with Eyal still at the helm with the product now sold in countless brick-and-mortar and online retail stores, including Walgreens and Amazon.com. Not only the creator Eyal is also the face of the product, appearing in most of Boy Butter’s ads and appearing frequently on many radio outlets.

Offering close to 10 different products which include the hugely popular Boy Butter Extreme desensitizing lubricant and You’ll Never Know it Isn’t Boy Butter, which is condom-safe. In addition to lubricant, the brand has also  just released a new male enhancement pill, Bonerz, as well a  female-friendly lubricant.

But enough about what Boy Butter is, what we want to know is about the man behind this amazing empire and what motivated him to get to where his is today.

You first founded Boy Butter when you were 24 years old, quite an accomplishment for someone so young! What gave you the drive to start your own business?

Ever since I graduated college I felt I wanted to go into business. My father is an entrepreneur, and I wanted to work for myself too. Being my own boss is amazing. Along with the necessary discipline and self-improvement, there is also the payoff of financial freedom, liberty, and my business becomes a vehicle for bettering my life.

Boy Butter has now gone on to become a major player in the personal lubricant industry, having appeared on major TV shows, such as Saturday Night Live and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. When did you first realize the brand had become a household name? How did you feel?

I knew from the first day that I uttered the name “Boy Butter” that it would be a success, because the name is hilarious and held such great potential for the market. Boy Butter can be both a novelty product and a seriously good and useful product for personal use. It fulfills so many needs for so many, especially gay men. People love the name, and as soon as you make a customer smile or laugh, a sale will soon follow. I produce an excellent product that is the perfect combination of good marketing, novelty and utility. I feel ecstatic about Boy Butter. It is endless with legs and extensions, and will always be a fun product to deal with, on so many levels.

There was also a need to resurrect cream-form lubricants from the 1970s and early 80s which were shelved due to not being latex-safe. Since creams traditionally are oil-based and “Safe Sex” became necessary, the market became latex-safe and water-based lubricant dominant.

What makes Boy Butter stand out from other lubricant brands on the market today?

Boy Butter stands out in several ways. Firstly, we present Boy Butter Lubricants in non-sexual food type packaging, because it disarms any sexual squeamishness in people and makes it a true novelty product fit for the best gag gift or bedroom necessity. Secondly, in the sense of the actual lubricant itself, Boy Butter Lubricants comes in a cream form. We have both oil-based (Original Boy Butter) and water-based styles (You’ll Never Know it Isn’t Boy Butter, the first ever stable water-based and latex-safe cream lubricant we invented in late-2006), which are totally latex and vaginally safe; a first with cream lubricants. I love creams best because they last longer than water-based lubricants, feel better on the skin and best of all wash off with water alone. The easy clean up means no more “shame stains” on surfaces or fabrics that are associated with overpowering and messy silicone lubricants.

Boy Butter’s consistency is much different from other brands — it is creamy, and just as the title describes, like butter. What benefit do those who use Boy Butter gain from using a lubricant with this type of texture and viscosity?

Creams can last almost as long as silicone lubricants, feel more natural and wash off as easy as any water based lubricant. It has all the benefits without any of the drawbacks from other lubricants on the market.

You now have quite a few different lines, including a warming lubricant, an extreme desensitizing liquid, a female-friendly lubricant called Lucky, and variations of most of those, which are water-based, called H2O. How often do you released new lines, and what is your most popular line to date?

We come out with new products or sizes every six months to a year. To date we have almost 30 different products, sizes and styles. Our most popular product is still the Original 16-ounce Boy Butter, the first product I ever came out with. But the desensitizing is a close second and third in popularity. People love the desensitizing for many reasons: they either want to increase the comfort associated with sexual penetration or they simply want to combat the ill and annoying effects of premature ejaculation.

Boy Butter also just released a product called Bonerz, which is a male enhancement pill. What gave you the inspiration to put out a non-lubricant product? Do you feel it detracts from the focus of what your brand is known for, or do you think it helps?

No not at all. I love Boy Butter Bonerz. It is a non-lubricant, which enhances our lubricant products, because male enhancement goes hand-in-hand, pun intended, with lubricant use. I’ll tell you, since the advent of male enhancement products like Viagra back in 1999, it revolutionized and quadrupled the personal lubricant industry, causing a real need to deal with all that extra friction.

What does a gay male consumer look for in a lubricant, that is different from a straight male? Or is it the same across the board?

Gay men usually will go for a longer-lasting product and are more open to varied types of lubricants, and straight men generally look for lubricants that are safe to use with women. Women self-lubricate so that alleviates much of the need for lubricants for straight men.

Why did you decide to start a line called Lucky, that caters to a woman’s needs? How do you feel about older people using your product? What made you choose that specific name?

When we created the first cream lubricant that was water-based, it became the first cream lubricant that women could use vaginally. Some older women do not lubricate sufficiently and really need long-lasting lubricants. I decided to expand to that market and I thought Lucky was a simple and clear name. Older people are the fastest growing segment of the population that is becoming more sexually active and like I said, previously Viagra changed the world and created so many more people with personal lubricant needs that did not exist before, I wanted to reach them.

If you could pick three celebrity spokesmen for your brand, who would you pick?

Well, Kathy Griffin because she is so gay friendly, Mel Gibson because he creates so much friction, and Lady Gaga because she is the bee’s knees.

What can loyal Boy Butter users expect to see from the brand next?

I think that a pink-labeled girl version of Boy Butter called Boy Butter for Girls is due next.

Hedda Lettuce is so much fun to watch when she does commercials for Boy Butter. MMM MOMMY! Will she be doing any more?

Oh absolutely! We love Hedda Lettuce because, like Boy Butter, she is the fusion of beauty and novelty.

What is your personal favorite Boy Butter product?

I love Boy Butter original because it makes masturbation and sex feel incredible.

A new report by Community Marketing Inc, a San Francisco based company, has acted to examine the attitudes and media usage of gay and lesbian consumers, and discovered that whilst other sectors may have been hard hit by the global recession, the gay and lesbian community are one of the most lucrative markets to be targeting. One element of the report showing this clearly concerned a question about what big purchases had beem made in the last year with 29% had bought a new laptop and 26% had bought an HD television set. On top of that respondents has also bought PDA/smart phones, cars and new desktop computers.

LGBT Focused Advertising Just Isn’t Working

A discovery that may surprise many is specific LGBT focused ads didn’t have the strong impact that marketers might imagine, with only 22% saying their purchasing decisions were influenced on advertising in LGBT magazines and newspapers, 21% by those who using LGBT spokespeople and 18% from companies advertising on LGBT websites. There was however a different factor that had a much bigger influence on whether the LGBT community would buy from a company, and that wasn’t how they targeted the gay community – it was how they looked after it with company’s employment practices (“such as non-discrimination in hiring or recognition of domestic partners”) influencing 45% of respondents, whilst 42% were influenced by “companies actively promote gay-friendly policies” in that category, and 37 percent ny companies supporting “LGBT political causes.”

Asked why the he believed LGBT media had such a small impact on buying decisions David Paisley, the senior projects director at Community Marketing said

“I think there is a combination of issues here…First, gay men and lesbians don’t necessarily look at the LGBT media every week. The number of LGBT print and Internet media is such a small fraction of the overall media. Also, when you go to an LGBT Web site, many of the ads are somewhat generic, and don’t necessarily qualify as ‘targeted LGBT.’”

The report also indicated that as well as LGBT print and internet media only making up a small proportion of all media, respondents were far more impressed by companies who didn’t act to hide away their targeted gay and lesbian advertising in niche publications, but instead produced general market advertising that reflected diversity and inclusion in society. One example of this was the Kaiser Permanente ad (which ran in Time magazine) which showed a photo of widely assortment people including a gay couple holding their child, with Paisley commenting

“That type of ad tests through the roof,”

How Does The LGBT Community Use Media?

Concerning the kind of media that the LGBT community use, the report discovered that over 70% watch television every day, with 61% listening to the radio, 51% using mainstream websites and 40% reading daily mainstream newspapers. Again though it discovered LGBT focused media was less popular with LGBT internet sites only being looked at daily by 21% of people and LGBT blogs only gaining 11%.

In terms of media used over a week, the internet did however come out top with an average of 13.1 hours, with television and music coming second and third. In terms of the first, online social networking has become a lot more popular, but isn’t necessarily the best target for marketing to the community with only 12% saying they used them to research products and services, whilst 63% went to communicate with friends.

However whilst it may suitable as the only source of advertising, it doesn’t mean it should be ignored completely, especially for those marketing to gay men, as the research showed 25% of gay men and 14% of lesbians responded to ads on mainstream sites, with that rising to 30% for gay men on LGBT blogs/social sites.

Changing Attitudes, Changing Advertising?

Attitudes to the LGBT community have changed steadily over the last couple of decades, and this has lead to different generations of the LGBT community being influenced by different forms of marketing. Older generation, for example, are likely to be more receptive to more LGBT targeted promotion, however the younger generation who feel more supported by society as a whole, are according to Paisley:

“…far less interested in the gay and lesbian media or being labeled in any way.”

Saying that they’d found the perfect place to market to a 25 year old gay man was not through a LGBT website but instead through social media sites like Facebook, it indicates that there is no longer a single marketing approach to suit all of the community.

Open But Still Proud

Whilst the report indicates the LGBT community is a lot more open to more general advertising, it also clearly shows a commitment to supporting the LGBT community with gays and lesbians passionate about boycotting companies that they felt had supported anti gay causes.

Via AdWeek and Malias

Want to now what got people talking this year? If you want to get a true reflection then you don’t want to be checking out the news headlines, you need to go to the water cooler of the internet to see what we’ve been really whittering (or should that be twittering) on about – Twitter

News Events

From a news angle there was one big issue that go everyone talking (and turning their avatars green) – the Iran election and it’s alleged irregularities. Alongside this we all got scared of meeting anyone in real life in case we got Swine Flu and turned into pigs, got all over-excited over Obama becoming president and then a few flakes of snow fell  in the United Kingdom and every mode of transport stopped working leaving them wishing they had more than tinned custard in their cupboards.

1. #iranelection
2. Swine Flu
3. Gaza
4. Iran
5. Tehran
6. #swineflu
7. AIG
8. #uksnow
9. Earth Hour
10. #inaug09

The death of Michael Jackson had Twitter and the world in shock this year, and then just when everyone had recovered Adam Lambert decided to flick the shock switch again with his performance at the American Music Awards. Susan Boyle went from being a nobody still living in the family home at 47 to a global singing star, whilst Chris Brown went from being a singer to someone who hits his girlfriend. Tiger Woods crashed into a tree which was packed full of secret affairs that came spilling out, whilst Christian Bale had quite the opposite problem not being able to keep quiet when someone walked into his line of sight during a scene on the Terminator Salvation film.

1. Michael Jackson
2. Susan Boyle
3. Adam Lambert
4. Kobe (Bryant)
5. Chris Brown
6. Chuck Norris
7. Joe Wilson
8. Tiger Woods
9. Christian Bale
10. A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez)

Movies

Whilst Harry Potter and New Moon may be aimed at teenagers that didn’t stop Twitter going mad about these two films this year. Alongside this there was also plenty to interest the geeks in the form of Star Trek and Transformers 2.

1. Harry Potter
2. New Moon
3. District 9
4. Paranormal Activity
5. Star Trek
6. True Blood
7. Transformers 2
8. Watchmen
9. Slumdog Millionaire
10. G.I. Joe

TV Shows

The UK’s X Factor might not have been able to get itself into the top ten in 2009, but American Idol did it easily coming in at the top spot, followed closely by the glorious Glee. Television Awards also got everyone excited with the Teen Choice Awards, Video Music Awards and BET Awards all getting people tweeting away.

1. American Idol
2. Glee
3. Teen Choice Awards
4. SNL (Saturday Night Live)
5. Dollhouse
6. Grey’s Anatomy
7. VMAS (Video Music Awards)
8. #bsg (Battlestar Galatica)
9. BET Awards
10. Lost

Sports (Teams, Events, Leagues)

Showing America’s dominance on Twitter is the fact that more than half of the most talked about sports events on Twitter were US based. However the UK did get some noticeable mentions in the form of Wimbledon, Chelsea and Liverpool.

1. Super Bowl
2. Lakers
3. Wimbledon
4. Cavs (Cleveland Cavaliers)
5. Superbowl
6. Chelsea
7. NFL
8. UFC 100
9. Yankees
10. Liverpool

Technology

It was all about waving on Twitter this year, Google Wave-ing to be exact, with everyone wanting an invite and then not sure how to use it once they had it. New operating systems for both the Apple (Snow Leopard) and PC (Windows 7) were also enough to get everyone excited. Oh and let’s not forget about the big #amazonfail that had everyone getting far too over-excited.

1. Google Wave
2. Snow Leopard
3. Tweetdeck
4. Windows 7
5. CES
6. Palm Pre
7. Google Latitude
8. #E3
9. #amazonfail
10. Macworld

Hash Tags

Before Twitter came along the hash tag had life easy, now the poor thing is in constant use whether it’s being used to highlight a news topic, as it was this year concerning the #iranelection and #swineflu, or just to entertain us all as we try to be the one to make up the wittiest tweet using hashtags such as #rememberwhen, #3drunkwords and #nevertrust.

1. #musicmonday
2. #iranelection
3. #sxsw
4. #swineflu
5. #nevertrust
6. #mm
7. #rememberwhen
8. #3drunkwords
9. #unacceptable
10. #iwish

Looking to really succeed in your business? These days if you’re not on all of the social media sites getting yourself known then you might as well resign yourself to having to lock up the office and handing the keys back to the landlord because all of your competitors are there building a merry band of fans, who unlike the customers you have, are willing to promote you to death without you even having to say a word or send an email.

So what are the key things you need to do to make sure your social media campaign is a success:

1. Make Yourself Useful

One of the best ways to make sure you’re a daily part of someone’s life is to make yourself useful to them, and the best way you can be that is by being focused on what you’re good at and know about.  A great example of this is Gary Vaynerchuk. More commonly known now as the Wine Guy, Gary is not only passionate about wine, but has a huge amount of knowledge about wine because that’s what he lives day in, day out. By utilising this, and not being afraid of giving away advice and information for free, Gary has made sure that he, and his company, Wine Library are right at the top of the list when you’re looking to lean about and buy wine online.

And he’s not afraid to use as many social media sites as he can get his hands on to get his message out. You’ll find him daily not only on his own Wine Library TV site but also updating his Twitter feed and interacting with fans on Facebook.

2. Keep Yourself Focused

As you make a name for yourself as being the expert in an industry it’s important that you stay focused. This doesn’t mean that you can’t tweet about a funny image you’ve found or post a link to a website you found funny on your Facebook wall, but it does mean sticking generally to what you know. Yes, Bob may be gaining huge amount of followers on Twitter and having articles written about him and his knowledge of hammers and screws, but if you’re more versed on vinyl records than tools you’re not going to succeed by suddenly going down an unknown direction. By all means observe the methods that other successful “experts” are using but make sure you stick to what you know about.

3.  Don’t Waste Your Time

Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are great for building up your profile, but they’re also pretty good time thieves that’ll have you shaking your head in disbelief you’ve just been tweeting constantly for an hour.  It’s therefore important to make sure you’re making good use of your time. If you find that most people are corresponding with you in the middle of the afternoon then make sure you set time aside to be able to converse with them then instead of feeling you can’t because you wasted an hour earlier getting lost in all the drunken photos people have posted on Facebook from the weekend.

However having said that with social media it’s important to be flexible and update as and when things happen, but if you are considering updating sites regularly you might want to consider using a site like Ping.fm which will allow you to send updates to multiple sites, including Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Linked In. This will mean you can keep fans constantly up to date with what you’re doing without you getting dragged into the fun of the sites themselves.

4. Make Yourself Known

Probably the most essential element in getting yourself a strong community is getting yourself known, because even if you know everything about a subject it’s not going to matter one bit if no one know who you are. And the bad news is there’s no quick fix to achieving this. If you really want to be known as the expert in your area then you need to be out there responding to questions, thoughts and ideas on your topic.

And this means hard work.

You’ll need to be setting up searches on search.twitter.com about your subject and becoming part of the conversation that people are having. You’ll also need to be joining Facebook groups and fan pages and participating in these.

Then there’s the blogs. Google Blogsearch is going to need to become a daily stop on your web browsing journey,and you’re going to need you to start commenting on the blogs on your topic. “Yes”, “No” and “I agree” are all out. You need to prove you know what you’re talking about, and that means reading posts and tweets in detail and responding to what is being said so people recognise you know what you’re on about, and aren’t just on an ego trip to get the most followers or most visits to your site.

5. Be Patient

As lovely as it would be for everything to click into place overnight it’s not going to happen. You need to be patient. None of us trust anyone straight away, we all need a bit of time to reassure ourselves this person really is as good as they seem, so it’s important that you hold this in your mind and don’t go proving everyone right in not trusting you straight away by suddenly going off down the spamming route after two weeks because you don’t feelyou’re achieving. Stick to the plan and success will come from it.
the book, Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith). It’s not easy. So, even though you may be doing everything “right,” building community does takes time. You will be earning it one person at a time, and it’s important to stay the course (you can read more about this right here: In Praise Of Slow).

1. Levi’s

Big supporters of the No to Prop 8 campaign in California, Levi’s have continued their backing of the LGBT community by joining the White Knot movement earlier this year and tying white ribbons to their mannequins in continued support of gay marriage. The company is also as supportive of it’s LGBt workforce being the first Fortune 500 company to offer unmarried domestic partners health benefits.

2. American Apparel

Another Californian company putting it’s support behind the repeal of Proposition 8, American Apparel went very public with it’s support producing a Legalize Gay T-shirt in 2008 for protestors. Overwhelmed by the response of the tee American Apparel went on to sell it in stores and online even though they were met with protests for doing so. Like Levi’s the guys at American Apparel have also continued with their support of the LGBT community offering two new gay rights tees as part of their new library range.

3.  Nike

Going on record in support of Referendum 71 in Washington, Nike have made a very clear statement that they are in support of equal rights for all. In the past they have also shown their willingness to listen to and support the views of the LGBT community by shelving an advertising campaign after there were complaints that it was sending out anti-gay messages.

4. Microsoft

Another company that received some criticism from the LGBT community in the past, Microsoft recently made it’s position on gay rights crystal clear by donating $100,000 to  Washington Families Standing Together in support of Referendum 71. Bill Gates, the chairman, and Steven A Ballmer, the chief executive also showed their personal support with additional contributions.

5. American Airlines

By setting up the Rainbow Team, the first LGBT dedicated airline sales division and website, American Airlines have made themselves stand out for the rest of the airlines, and don’t just stop at this service. Also working hard to offer the LGBT community useful services,  AA also list gay themed national events on their events calendars and often attend Pride parades with their very own floats.

6. Apple

Speaking out in support of gay marriage and opposing Proposition 8, Apple put it’s money where it’s mouth was donating $100,000 to the No on Prop 8 campaign, and also like Levi’s shows it’s support through the benefits it offers start which includes equal rights and benefits to their employees’ same sex partners.

7. Google

Not a company usually known for speaking out on social issues, Google made the unusual step to do just that last September, releasing a statement stating that “while there are many objections to this proposition – further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text – it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8.” Alongside this Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google, also donated $140,000 to the No campaign.

8. Starbucks

Calling for the approval of Referendum 71 Starbucks are another company showing their support for gay rights, and whilst they haven’t donated to the campaign in the same way as Microsoft have, they have been long term supporters of the LGBT community featuring a pro-gay message by Armistead Maupin on their coffee cups back in 2005.

9. Boeing

Standing alongside Starbucks, Nike and Microsoft in their support of Referendum 71, Boeing, the commercial airline manufacturer has shown that it is in full support of equal rights for gays and lesbians..

10. IBM

Constantly finding itself at the top of gay friendly employee lists, IBM has worked hard to make its work environment an inclusive one, offering health benefits to it’s employees’ same sex partners and also having an anti discrimination clause. And it’s definitely not just all talk with  the Human Rights Campaign having rated IBM 100% on it’s gay friendly index since 2003, and IBM winning over 40 LGBT awards globally.

Styled out of broken pieces of crockery, this innovative business card design for a Greek restaurant is like the atmosphere of the restaurant on a piece of crockery.

2. Phil Kiel Badge Set

We all loved collecting pins as a child, and lets be honest, we all still do, and with this clever business card by Phil Kiel you get 6 reminding you just how easy it is get in touch with him.

3. State Systems Radio

Designed in the shape of a portable radio, this business card is not only fun, but also guaranteed to make sure State Systems Radio stand out from everyone else in their industry.

4. Reactor

Styled to easily fit into a wallet, these business cards have designed with a twist – the ability to pop up a silhouette of the person that the card belongs to. The only downside is there’s then no excuse for not recognising them next time you see them.

5. SheetSeat

Using the design for their wooden chair as the basis for this business card does a great job of not only providing people with contact details, but also to be able to see easily see what the product the company makes is like.

6. National Greyhound Adoption Program

Designed using a metal dog tag, as opposed to cardboard, as the base for this business card is guaranteed to make sure it’s the first place that comes to mind when you think about adopting a dog.

7. Corvus Design Studio

Probably one of the brightest business cards you’ll ever see, this card is sure to grab your attention when you’re flicking through your cards looking for a designer.

8. Asthma Allergy Centre

Another business card using an unusual material is this business card for an Asthma Clinic, which uses a balloon that requires you to pull it up to read it (isn’t that a bit mean though if you have breathing problems..)

9. Casbella Furniture

Designed to fold out into the shape of a sofa, this card for a furniture company shows how some simple cutting and folding can totally transform its look.

10. Egil Paulsen

Produced with folding instructions that turn this flat card into a piece of artwork sitting on an easel, this stunning card for Egil Paulsen has to be best artist card we’ve ever seen.

11. Mechanical Engineer Card

Brilliant at showing off how clever the mechanical engineer who designed this is, it does have one down fall – the fact that most of us would end up breaking it trying to put it together.

12. Marco Rosella – Web Designer

Designed using newspaper as the main material for the card, and then applying a sticker on top, this is a great example of how a great looking business card doesn’t need to cost a lot of money.

13. Yoga One

Showing how flexible you could become if you went to their yoga classes, this card features a woman in an upside down yoga pose with two holes at the top of her legs for your fingers to poke through

14. Melvin Tool Card

Definitely one to grab your attention, this card is also incredibly useful as it also comes with 5 mini tools for you to push out and use!

15. Google Me Card

Let’s be honest if we want to find out anything about anyone these days we Google them, which is exactly what makes this final business card so cool!

CIGNA cardiologist Rebecca Allison has been announced as the new President of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, which will meet this week in Washington DC for it’s 27th Annual Conference, where they will focus on the important, but often ignored topic of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender health.

Having held the position of President Elect for the last year, Dr Allison is no stranger to the GLMA, and has some impressive credentials behind her, having received a bachelor’s of science degree from the University of Mississippi in Oxford, and her medical degree magna cum laude from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in Jackson.  Following this ,she went on to complete her postgraduate training at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, and the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and is board certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular diseases, as well as being a  Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Cardiology.

In terms of her history concerning LGBT health, Dr. Allison has, since 2004, served on the GLMA board of directors, as well as chairing its Education committee. Alongside this, she has chaired the American Medical Association’s Advisory Committee on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues,  is a member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and has authored chapters on gender identity, as well as speaking at the American Psychiatric Association’s 2009 annual conference, about gender identity disorder and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

 Dr. Jeff Kang, the CIGNA’s chief medical officer, spoke of how he felt that Allison was the woman for the role stating “Becky Allison is not only an outstanding physician, she’s also completely dedicated to improving the health of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, and I congratulate her on becoming GLMA president.”