diff --git a/tildes/tildes/lib/database.py b/tildes/tildes/lib/database.py
index 05d255a..c6836d6 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/lib/database.py
+++ b/tildes/tildes/lib/database.py
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ from sqlalchemy.engine.interfaces import Dialect
 from sqlalchemy.orm.session import Session
 from sqlalchemy.types import UserDefinedType
 from sqlalchemy_utils import LtreeType
+from sqlalchemy_utils.types.ltree import LQUERY
 
 
 # https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/errcodes-appendix.html
@@ -128,8 +129,8 @@ class ArrayOfLtree(ARRAY):  # pylint: disable=too-many-ancestors
     class comparator_factory(ARRAY.comparator_factory):
         """Add custom comparison functions.
 
-        The ancestor_of and descendant_of functions are supported by LtreeType, so this
-        duplicates them here so they can be used on ArrayOfLtree too.
+        The ancestor_of, descendant_of, and lquery functions are supported by LtreeType,
+        so this duplicates them here so they can be used on ArrayOfLtree too.
         """
 
         def ancestor_of(self, other):  # type: ignore
@@ -139,3 +140,10 @@ class ArrayOfLtree(ARRAY):  # pylint: disable=too-many-ancestors
         def descendant_of(self, other):  # type: ignore
             """Return whether the array contains any descendant of `other`."""
             return self.op("<@")(other)
+
+        def lquery(self, other):  # type: ignore
+            """Return whether the array matches the lquery/lqueries in `other`."""
+            if isinstance(other, list):
+                return self.op("?")(cast(other, ARRAY(LQUERY)))
+            else:
+                return self.op("~")(other)
diff --git a/tildes/tildes/models/topic/topic_query.py b/tildes/tildes/models/topic/topic_query.py
index 7c8ea83..46adfdf 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/models/topic/topic_query.py
+++ b/tildes/tildes/models/topic/topic_query.py
@@ -134,14 +134,15 @@ class TopicQuery(PaginatedQuery):
         return self.filter(Topic.created_time > start_time)
 
     def has_tag(self, tag: Ltree) -> "TopicQuery":
-        """Restrict the topics to ones with a specific tag (generative)."""
-        # casting tag to string really shouldn't be necessary, but some kind of strange
-        # interaction seems to be happening with the ArrayOfLtree class, this will need
-        # some investigation
-        tag = str(tag)
+        """Restrict the topics to ones with a specific tag (generative).
+
+        Note that this method searches for topics that have any tag that either starts
+        or ends with the specified tag, not only exact/full matches.
+        """
+        queries = [f"{tag}.*", f"*.{tag}"]
 
         # pylint: disable=protected-access
-        return self.filter(Topic._tags.descendant_of(tag))  # type: ignore
+        return self.filter(Topic._tags.lquery(queries))  # type: ignore
 
     def search(self, query: str) -> "TopicQuery":
         """Restrict the topics to ones that match a search query (generative)."""