Health of LGBTQIA+ Individuals: LGBTQIA+ Search Terminology

Social and cultural norms have been changing rapidly in the United States and around the world. This has led to changes in the vocabulary used during discussions of sexuality and gender identity. Library and research terminology changes more slowly, and older research articles often use verbiage now considered outdated, unacceptable, or overly clinical for use in conversation or writing. This page is intended to help you identify the maximum number of useful terms for your literature searches.

These sources list vocabulary relating to LGBTQIA+ topics. Using these terms as keywords will bring up many relevant articles and news stories in health sciences databases.

PubMed and some other medical research databases index their articles using MeSH (the National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings). Many of the MeSH terms that reference LGBTQIA+ people are no longer socially acceptable or are rarely used. Many commonly used terms are not reflected in MeSH at all.

If you search PubMed using only common, everyday terms, you may find a number of relevant articles, but you will likely miss many important articles as well. The most effective searches require the use of both MeSH terms and more common, everyday terms.

Below are some terms that can be used when searching PubMed. This is not a comprehensive list of terms. If you need help developing a search strategy, we encourage you to contact the Health Science Library staff for assistance.

We are aware that some of the search terms listed below are considered inappropriate and are offensive to some people. The terms are included here because they still appear in medical and health sciences literature.