Research Guides: LGBTQIA+ Resources: Background Information

Social Issues: Background, Context, Arguments

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Social Issues This link opens in a new window
Provides useful background information on gays serving openly in the military and gay adoption.
Encyclopedia of American Social Movements This link opens in a new window
Volume 4 contains a thorough entry on the history of the LGBTQ movement for civil rights.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new window
Opposing Viewpoints in Context covers current social issues, helping students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for conducting research, completing writing assignments, preparing for debates, creating presentations and more. It includes a streamlined interface, media-rich topic pages, and curriculum-focused tools that help students explore issues from all perspectives. Resources are divided into topics which contains numerous full text pieces further categorized by the nature of their material: viewpoints (essays), reference, statistics, magazines and newspapers, images, primary documents and web sites.
Archives of Sexuality & Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940 This link opens in a new window
Archives of Sexuality & Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940 covers topics including LGBTQ activism and the HIV/AIDS crisis. It provides researchers with the documents necessary to delve deep into the Gay Rights Movement with resources that may otherwise go undiscovered.
Lesbian Herstory Archives This link opens in a new window
View the newsletters of the Lesbian Herstory Archives from the 1970s to present. These documents show the history of the development of the Archives and contain information about its collections.

Google :site Tip

To find reliable statistics and reports on the open web, use Google to search by keyword and add site:.gov to the search box. This will limit your search results to information on government websites. For example:

transgender statistics site:.gov

homeless LGBT youth site:gov

Reference & Background Sources

Same-Sex Marriage (eBook) by David E. Newton
Publication Date: 2010
Slightly out of date, but useful for background information, discussion, and a worldwide perspective.
Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures (eBook) by George Haggerty (Editor); Bonnie Zimmerman (Editor)
Publication Date: 2003
Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context by Vern L. Bullough
Call Number: HQ76.5 .B43 2002
Publication Date: 2002
Provides biographical information on activists for gay civil rights from pre-1950 through the end of the 20th century.
Handbook of Lesbian and Gay Studies by Diane Richardson (Editor); Steven Seidman (Editor)
Call Number: HQ75.15 .H36 2002
Publication Date: 2002
From politics to health, cyber-queers to queer families, the review essays in this volume cover all the important bases of GLB history and politics.
Historical Dictionary of the Lesbian Liberation Movement by JoAnne Myers
Call Number: HQ76.5 .M94 2003
Publication Date: 2003
This book helps to make the still-active movement visible--the history, successes, setbacks, controversies, and issues. This book is a good secondary resource for those studying this social political movement, containing a chronology, contextual overview, dictionary entries that cover persons, laws, terminology, issues, and countries, and an extensive bibliography of primary resources and current work.
Encyclopedia of Gender and Society by Jodi O'Brien (Editor)
Call Number: HQ1115 .E54 2009
Publication Date: 2008
Including contributions by experts in the field, the Encyclopedia of Gender and Society covers the major theories, research, people, and issues in contemporary gender studies. This comprehensive, two-volume encyclopedia is distinguished by a cross-national/cross-cultural perspective that provides comparative analyses of the life experiences of men and women around the world.
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of LGBT Issues Worldwide (eBook) by Chuck Stewart (Editor)
Publication Date: 2009
This set has an ambitious scope with the goal of offering the most up-to-date international overview of key issues in the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. HIV/AIDS has been a major media focus, but this set fosters a broader understanding of the status of LGBT individuals in their society. More than 70 countries are represented.
Homosexuality and Religion: An Encyclopedia (eBook) by Jeffrey S. Siker
Publication Date: 2006
This encyclopedia provides an overview of the various attitudes and responses that religions have had to the presence of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons within their communities.
Sociolegal Control of Homosexuality: A Multi-Nation Comparison (eBook) by Donald J. West (Editor); Richard Green (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2006
Sociolegal Control of Homosexuality examines governmental and religious reactions to issues of sexual orientation in regions - such as Asia and the Middle East - not often covered in English language publications.