When you care enough ...

Unlike the founders of Rainbow Greetings, the owner of Lavenderpop greeting cards isn't trying to get his product on the shelves of national retail chains. But he is breaking some new ground on a national level: His is the first company to focus its cards solely on black gays and lesbians.

"The few gay cards I would see at specialty shops would have virtually no people-of-color images," said Otis Richardson, 41, an illustrator who launched the company and its line of 20 "everyday" greeting cards in several Chicago-area stores last year. Now his cards are being sold at 10 stores in five cities.