[9] In 2015, the NIH announced the formation of the Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office[10] and numerous professional[11][12] and academic[13][14] institutions have adopted this term.
While the term sexual and gender minority may vary over time, the US NIH, in one document from circa 2015, stated they use it 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 LGBTI (e.g., queer, questioning, two-spirit, asexual, men who have sex with men, 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).
[17][18] 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.
Stigma-related stress creates elevated coping regulation and social and cognitive processes leading to risk for psychopathology.
[20] Examples of stigma-related stress that sexual minorities encounter throughout their lives are homophobia, rejection, and discrimination which may lead them to conceal their identities.
[23] Sexual minority women have a higher incidence of asthma, obesity, arthritis and cardiovascular disease than other groups.
The term symbolic annihilation accounts for their lack of characterization due to not fitting into the white, heterosexual, vanilla type lifestyle.
In music, people like Sam Smith and Sia have created songs that express their emotions and sexuality with a number of followers.
[30] In addition to LGBT, some referred to as "sexual minorities" include fetishists and practitioners in of BDSM (bondage, dominance, and submission), and sadism and masochism.