Surveying Sexual and Gender Minorities

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals are often referred to as sexual minorities, and transgender (T) individuals are referred to as gender minorities. This chapter provides an overview of considerations for health-related survey research with sexual and gender minorities. The first section of the chapter provides definitions of sexual orientation and gender identity, describes challenges in the measurement of sexual and gender minority status, and presents examples of questions for measuring sexual orientation and gender identity. The second section presents a summary of the probability and nonprobability sampling methods that have been used most frequently in research with sexual and gender minorities with a description of the major strengths and limitations of each approach for sampling and recruiting sexual and gender minorities. The third section provides an overview of data-collection methods that have been used in research with sexual and gender minorities.