Violet writes: The current LCSH that roughly corresponds to “queer people” is “Sexual minorities.” See the authority record here.
Find more information about the history of the phrase “Sexual minority” at the Wikipedia article and the Google Books Ngram.
One challenge here is that there’s no universally accepted alternative to this term. “Queer” is the word that comes the closest, but some folks (usually older folks) still see that as a slur. Initialisms like GLBT, LGBT, LGBTQ, LGBTQIA, QUILTBAG, LGBTQ+, are also options, but those forms name some groups but leave others out, and “just” being included in a plus sign is less than ideal.
The complex see-also note states “headings for individual sexual minorities, and headings containing a term for an individual sexual minority, e.g., Asexual people; Bisexuals; Gays; Christian lesbians; Gender-nonconforming youth; Intersex athletes; Older transsexuals; Transgender librarians”. From this and the UF terms such as “Gender minorities” and “GLBT people,” it is clear that “Sexual minorities” is intended to include both sexuality and gender. Despite this, terms such as “Gays,” “Lesbians,” or “Transgender people” are NOT listed as narrower terms under “Sexual minorities.” Here’s the rationale for that from LC (Subject Analysis Committee report from ALA Midwinter 2019 [SAC19-MW/1.4]): Sexual Minorities. The Tentative List for December 2018 included several proposals to change the hierarchy of headings that represent individual sexual and gender minorities. Those headings had been NTs of Sexual minorities and are now NTs of Persons. This action was undertaken to bring LCSH treatment of these groups into alignment with the way that other minority groups are treated in LCSH. For example, headings for American ethnic groups do not have the BT Minorities—-United States, and headings representing people with disabilities do not have the BT Minorities, either, although people with disabilities usually constitute a minority. In addition, a group’s status as a minority is relative to the population in general. A class of persons that is in the minority in one context is not necessarily the in the minority in another context. A general see also reference was added to Sexual minorities to show the various types of headings that refer to gender and sexual minorities. It reads, “see also headings for individual sexual minorities, and headings containing a term for an individual sexual minority, e.g., Asexual people; Bisexuals; Gays; Christian lesbians; Gender-nonconforming youth; Intersex athletes; Older transsexuals; Transgender librarians.”
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