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Sexual and gender minorities

minority group differentiated by its sexual orientation, and often also including non-cisgender identities

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ589656 ↗
Source-derived summary

Sexual and gender minorities (SGM) comprise individuals whose sexual identity, sexual orientation, sexual behavior, or gender identity differ from the majority of the surrounding society. Sexual minorities include homosexual, bisexual, asexual , and other non-heterosexual people, Gender minorities include transgender and non-binary people. Gender, sexual and romantic minorities (GSRM) includes individuals of a minority romantic orientation such as aromanticism. Sexual and gender minorities is a synonym for LGBTQ people. In 2015, the United States National Institutes of Health described SGM as an "umbrella term that encompasses populations included in the acronym "LGBTI" (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex), and those whose sexual orientation or gender identity varies. It includes those who may not self-identify as any of the immediate letters of LGBTI (e.g., queer, questioning, two-spirit, asexual, men who have sex with men, women who have sex with women, gender variant), or those who have a specific medical condition affecting reproductive development (e.g., individuals with differences or disorders of sex development, who sometimes identify as intersex)."

Numerous professional and academic institutions use sexual and gender minorities or similar terminology. In 2015, the US National Institutes of Health announced the formation of the Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office.

Origins

The term sexual minority most likely was coined in the late 1960s under the influence of Lars Ullerstam's book The Erotic Minorities: A Swedish View, which is strongly in favor of tolerance and empathy to paraphilias such as pedophilia and uncommon sexualities in which people were labeled "sex criminals". The term was used as analogous to ethnic minority.

Scientist Ritch Savin-Williams supports using the term in order to accurately describe adolescent youths who may not identify as any common culturally defined sexual identity label but have attractions towards those of the same anatomical sex as themselves.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Sexual and gender minorities” as minority group differentiated by its sexual orientation, and often also including non-cisgender identities. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2015—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Sexual, gender and minorities can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as minority group differentiated by its sexual orientation, and often also including non-cisgender identities. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q589656. The Library of Congress control number is sh2004003385. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2015.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Sexual and gender minorities”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Sexual and gender minorities primary sources, Sexual and gender minorities archive and Sexual research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sexual and gender minorities”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Sexual and gender minorities” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.