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LGBTQ Support, Research, & Reading

A guide for reading and research on LGBTQ issues and community.

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Search terms

When searching for LGBTQ resources, you will sometimes have better results if you spell out whole words rather than using acronyms. Here is a list of words and phrases that you might use while conducting research:

Homosexuality  
Bisexuality
Transgender
Cisgender
Transexual /Transsexual
Transvestite
Gay
Lesbian
Queer

Questioning
Gender Identity 
Sexual Orientation
Sexuality
Same-Sex Marriage
Gay Marriage
Marriage equality
Gays in the military
Gay service members

Queer Theology 
Gay Spirituality
Queer Theory
Gay history
Lesbian Religion
Sex change
Sex reassignment

You can also combine many of the terms above with other topics such as:

History
Religion
Psychology
Literature
Music
Film
Adoption
Marriage
Housing
Employment
Rights
Discrimination
Persecution
Suicide
Holocaust

Search Tips

  • To force the search engine to look for two or more words in a particular order and with no other words in between, use the phrase search. Place the phrase in quotation marks: "gay marriage" "lesbian spirituality"
  • If you are unsure of the form of a word (or the spelling!) use an asterisk as a wild card. For example: teen* will return results containing teen, teenager, teenagers, teens
  • Use the "Boolean operator" AND to make sure that the search engine searches for all of your words or phrases. AND means you must give me results that contain the items on both sides of the operator, for example, adoption AND gay
  • Use the "Boolean operator" OR to look for synonymous or closely related terms. For example, if I am wondering about the intersection of religion and homosexuality, I might type: religion AND (gay OR lesbian OR homosexual)
Creative Commons License

Unless otherwise noted, the content of these guides by Loras College Library, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Some icons by Yusuke Kamiyamane. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.