CHSL LGBTQ+ Resources

Social and cultural norms change rapidly in the United States and around the world. Library and research terminology changes more slowly, and older research articles often use verbiage now considered outdated, unacceptable, or overly clinical for use in conversation or writing.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.

• Glossary of LGBT Terms for Health Care Teams (National LGBT Health Education Center)

• Glossary of Terms (Human Rights Campaign)

• Terms To Avoid: Offensive Terminology (GLAAD Media Reference Guide)

• Preferred Terms for Select Population Groups and Communities (CDC)

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.

• What is MeSH? (National Library of Medicine)

  A tutorial on the characteristics of MeSH and how to use MeSH terms.

• Searching PubMed with MeSH (National Library of Medicine)

  A video explaining the basics of how to search using MeSH.

• MeSH Browser (NCBI, NLM)

  Allows you to type in a common term and find the corresponding MeSH term.

• MEDLINE®/PubMed® Health Disparities and Minority Health Search Strategy

  A search strategy for identifying health disparities research articles in the PubMed database. Can be used as is or modified.

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.