Encyclopedias and Handbooks
These types of resources can be a good choice for identifying definitions, key terms, or discussions within the academic community:
- The Cambridge Companion to Queer Studies (2020)
- Historical dictionary of the lesbian and gay liberation movements (2013)
- The Oxford handbook of global LGBT and sexual diversity politics (2020)
- Research handbook on gender, sexuality and the law (2020)
- Transgender : a reference handbook (2019)
- Sex and Gender: A Reference Handbook (2017)
- The dictionary of homophobia a global history of gay & lesbian experience (2008)
Find Books
Not straight, not white : black gay men from the march on Washington to the AIDS crisis by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2016Mumford sheds new light on four volatile decades in the protracted battle of Black gay men for affirmation and empowerment in the face of pervasive racism and homophobia.
Before We Were Trans by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2022The stories of people across the globe, from antiquity to the present, whose experiences of gender have defied binary categories. Blending historical analysis with sharp cultural criticism, trans historian and activist Kit Heyam offers a new, radically inclusive trans history.
Living queer history : remembrance and belonging in a southern city by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2023Approaching the past through a lens of queer and trans survival and world-building transforms history itself into a tool for imagining and realizing a better future.
Black on Both Sides by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2017Uncovering the overlapping histories of Blackness and trans identity from the nineteenth century to the present day.
Queer Indigenous Feminism: Unsettling "Gender" as a Decolonizing Methodology by Location: Book Chapter Available OnlinePublication Date: 2022This chapter shows how Euro-American settler constructions and systems of gender function as weapons of settler colonial violence that facilitate and justify Indigenous land theft, sexual assault, and genocide.
Desbordes by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2014Examines the intersections of "Latino," "queer," and "American," to illustrate how the categories of class, race, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity are directly entangled with issues of citizenship and belonging.
Gay Latino Studies by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2011Latino scholars across disciplines consider gay Latino scholarly and cultural work in relation to mainstream gay, lesbian, and queer academic discourses and the broader field of Chicano and Latino studies.
Transmovimientos by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2021Within a trans-embodied framework, this anthology identifies transmovimientos as the creative force or social mechanism through which queer, trans, and gender nonconforming Latinx communities navigate their location and calibrate their consciousness.
The Cambridge Companion to Queer Studies by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2020This Companion provides a guide to queer inquiry in literary and cultural studies. The essays represent new and emerging areas, including transgender studies, indigenous studies, disability studies, queer of color critique, performance studies, and studies of digital culture.
Sex and Gender by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2017Geared toward high school students, undergraduate students, and general readers, this reference work provides a thorough and unbiased treatment of sex and gender.
Transgender : a reference handbook by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2019This book provides a crucial resource for readers who are investigating trans issues. It takes a diverse and historic approach, focusing on more than one idea or one experience of trans identity or trans history.
Library and Archive Resources
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The History Project (THP) The History Project (THP) is New England’s largest and most venerable archives of LGBTQ-related materials.
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Digital Transgender Archive The purpose of the Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) is to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world.
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ACTUP Oral History Project The ACT UP Oral History Project is a collection of interviews with surviving members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, New York.
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The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgender Historical Society The archives of the GLBT Historical Society contain approximately 800 collections of personal papers, photographs, audiovisual recordings, and organizational records.
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The Gay Peoples Union Collection, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections The Gay Peoples Union (GPU) was the most important gay and lesbian rights organization in Milwaukee during the 1970s.
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Lavender Legacies Guide This is the first formal and comprehensive guide to primary source material relating to the history and culture of lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgendered (LBGT) people.
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LGBT Materials in the New York Public Library Digital Collections The International Gay Information Center (IGIC) archives operated as a community-based repository until 1988, when the organization's directors gave the collection to The New York Public Library.
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ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives The ONE Archives Foundation collects, preserves, and protects LGBTQ history, art, and culture in collaboration with ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
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People With a History: An Online Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans* History Hundreds of original texts, discussions, and [soon] images, and addresses LGBT history in all periods, and in all regions of the world.
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Lesbian Herstory Archives The Lesbian Herstory Archives is home to the world's largest collection of materials by and about lesbians and their communities.
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Transgender Archives, University of Victoria (B.C.) The Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria is committed to the preservation of the history of pioneering activists, community leaders, and researchers who have contributed to the betterment of trans, gender non-binary, and Two-Spirit people.
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OutHistory.org: A public history website that aims to present and promote high-quality LGTBQ historical research.
Find Databases and Journals
Relevant Journals
Note: All articles from these sources will show up in BU Libraries Search if we have access to them. If you are in the advanced stages of your search, you might find it helpful to consult these journals directly:
- Journal of Gay & Lesbian Studies
- Journal of Gerontological Social Work
- Journal of Homosexuality
- Journal of LGBT Youth
- Journal of Social Work Education
- Journal of Youth & Adolescence
- Social Work
- Youth & Society
Relevant Databases
- Archives of Sexuality & Gender: This database provides a collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender.
- LGBTQ+ Source: This database provides scholarly and popular LGBTQ+ publications in full text, plus historically important primary sources, including monographs, magazines and newspapers.
- LGBTQ+ Rights: LGBTQ+ Rights charts the gay rights movement in America, showing the civil rights codified into law in the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as the inequalities that still exist today.
- Women's Studies International: Women's Studies International indexes women's studies, women's issues and gender-focused journal and magazine articles, books and book chapters, dissertations and reports worldwide.
Searching Across Disciplines
Open Access Journals
The following is a list of open access journals relating to sexuality and gender from a variety of perspectives:
- Analize: Journal of Gender and Feminist Studies
- Demographic Research
- Dukeminier Awards Journal
- Feminists@Law
- Feral Feminisms
- Global Health Action
- InterAlia: A Journal of Queer Studies
- Interpersona: An International Journal on Interpersonal Relationships
- Journal of International Women’s Studies
- Journal of Positive Sexuality
- Masculinities and Social Change
- The Qualitative Report
- Queer Cats Journal of LGBTQ Studies
- Scholar and Feminist Online
- Sprinkle: An Underground Journal of Feminist and Queer Studies
- Transgender Health
- What is Queer Theory? (A good overview for beginners)
- Writing from Below
Additional Resources
Online Collections:
- Hidden Histories: Discovering Los Angeles' LGBTQ+ Collections (USC)
- Gay Community News (Digitized, Northeastern University)
- Gay Community News (Digitized, The History Project)
- Gay Community News (Archives of Sexuality and Gender)
- Alternative Press Index
- Communication & Mass Media Complete
External Organizations:
These groups often produce reports or have information potentially relevant to your research.
- Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, UCLA Law School
- Movement Advancement Project
- The Michael D. Palm Center
- Gay Marriage and Homosexuality, the Pew Research Center
- Mapping LGBTQ Equality: 2010 to 2020, United States (ICPSR 37877)
- American Civil Liberties Union LGBT Rights
- Trans Formation Project
- Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies
- Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Health
- Lambda Legal
- Massachusetts Commission on LGBT Youth
- National Center for Transgender Equality
- National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
- The Advocate
- Bay Windows
