As opposed to shifting focus between individuals, the goal is to capture the sum of the parts simultaneously. Research that examines 2SLGBTQ+ musicians in the context of community and school ensembles is scarce, thus providing unique insight into the appeal of performing music ensembles for 2SLGBTQ+ people. While vocal LGB students sought general queer-positive support in the classroom, trans students had more specific ones.
It is more widespread in the United States than in Canada, but is still present in major Canadian cities such as Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. A recurring issue in much of the youth music education literature has been the lack of classroom analysis.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Sears (2005) pointed out that the victory of achieving full citizenship of the state as queer people has meant that many now trust the state that left us for dead during the AIDS crisis and used the police to force us onto the streets to beat us for resisting our oppression. Just a few years ago, Toronto police ignored pleas from Toronto's gay community to investigate several missing persons, resulting in eight known murders by a serial killer (Joaquin et al., 2019). Sears (2005) summarized queer anti-capitalism as the rejection of the commodification of our community for capital gain, the recognition that assimilation into capitalism is not liberation, and the rejection of capitalism is what will give true freedom to the community as a whole in instead of.
This can take many forms, but the key factor that needs to happen is remobilization focused on the needs of our most marginalized: our disabled, trans, black, indigenous, people of color and members of the working class (Sears, 2005). This requires queer identity to be politicized so that the movement focuses on shared queer identity and rejection of the capitalist state rather than seeking safety in it (Sears, 2005). I see this as applicable to my research because of how the arts are viewed in a capitalist society.
Rejection of capitalism is something that should be of importance to musicians and music educators. This is to avoid our members paying large amounts out of their own pockets, which is not possible for everyone. Queer anti-capitalism requires mobilizing the community around the needs of our most vulnerable combined with politicizing our identity to recognize that the state does not truly provide us with security.
Queer people and musicians both don't have a choice to live in a society where we are limited, but we do have a choice to resist it for the benefit of our larger communities and we must.
METHODOLOGY
I am researching a community in which I am deeply rooted, and constructivist grounded theory gives me the freedom to do so without risking assumed biases or homogenizing the queer experience. This is because an important feature of constructivist grounded theory is the search for multiple perspectives (Charmaz, 2017). To help contextualize all of the participants' perspectives, I allowed participants to describe all of the demographics themselves rather than having pre-constructed check boxes so that participants could describe their identities in terms of them instead of attributing to what I as a researcher have constructed in terms. of gender, race and sexuality, which are themselves constructs with a lot of historical and contextual meaning.
Constructivist grounded theory values analyzing the language used (Charmaz, 2017) thus allowing more depth into each participant's identity for them to describe themselves. People I know or are friends with are most likely to fill out the questionnaire as they would have been the first to see it. I see my closeness to my study community as a benefit rather than a hindrance or source of bias because in constructivist grounded theory.
I am able to acknowledge my proximity to the community to critique how my experiences and perspectives may influence my research, while using my visibility to attract participants with the assurance that the researcher will have more understanding than the community member. It is quite time-consuming and sometimes attracts the attention of researchers because it is too subjective because the topics are ultimately constructed by me as the researcher (Chapman et al., 2015). I think this was balanced by my use of constructivist grounded theory instead of another type because it wasn't.
Finally, the code labels for all demographic data were grouped into themes that I constructed as the researcher based on similarities and response tone.
FINDINGS Demographic Differences and General Findings
There is a lot to be said about how race, class, and music education are inextricably linked. Performing arts are associated with queerness (Rumens & Broomfield, 2014), which is reflected in some responses such as “I think it [music ensemble] was often a safe place to be 'other', to put it simply. These stories are ones of growth and becoming that musicians know to be true as you acquire musical skills, but musical stories and queer stories parallel each other.
To be in ensemble is to exist in a space that works with your identity instead of working against or around it. The first is that participation in choirs is associated with femininity, therefore men who participate are seen as less masculine and implied to be gay (Harrison, 2007). It's an interesting contrast of the cisgender gay man who found the church choir welcoming because he could be out.
This ensemble had many 2SLGBTQ+ members she could connect with and of her involvement she said, “This band was the first group setting where I brought myself fully into the circle, and there was a full, enthusiastic encouragement of my identity and orientation.” The non-binary trombonist stopped playing the trombone despite studying music and focused on other ensembles until they found an entirely gender-marginalized brass ensemble to play with. Participants who were conflicted or concerned about their identity found ensemble to be a welcome reprieve and often discussed mental health as part of their 2SLGBTQ+ well-being, as exemplified by statements such as “I was just coming to terms with or accepting my sexuality. I [was] in college and while I was figuring it out, life was really chaotic and turbulent… I could go to rehearsal and forget all my problems. This is supported by participants disclosing that they were at risk of dying by suicide, often using the word escape to describe their involvement in the ensemble, such as “…band was an escape from me. Participants who disclosed information on this theme were more likely to be bisexual, pansexual, queer, or asexual, but experienced cross-gender romantic attraction.
She said: “I'm not straight enough, but I'm also not that weird, so I tend to lack a community to be with. This differs from organized religion in that a higher power is not necessary for belief and has no structure or right way of being. I was exactly where I needed to be.” I know there is something so profound about their experience that I struggle to find a label other than holy.
IMPLICATIONS
Interpreting this from a queer anti-capitalist perspective, an environment free of the burdens of capitalism would likely also be free of cisheterosexism. 2SLGBTQ+ people are enemies of cisheterosexism because how we conceptualize and form relationships with others and ourselves is not conducive to the strategic way capitalist society is designed to encourage maximum consumption. In ensemble, our identities cannot be commodified nor do we need to present as a specific kind of 2SLGBTQ+ person in order to gain full personhood and access to resources.
Both ideas together form the basis of the comfort that 2SLGBTQ+ people find in music ensembles. The benefits of joining a music ensemble do not end after coming out and accepting yourself, because these transformative stories dictate that becoming is an ever-evolving process that continues into adulthood for 2SLGBTQ+ people and musicians alike. Ensemble remains the vehicle for expression and asceticism for the complexities of navigating capitalism as a queer person.
There seems to be a tendency for non-musician social workers to have a one-dimensional view of arts-based programming where the visual arts take precedence. Sears (2005) highlights how 2SLGBTQ+ people must politicize their identities in order to continue working towards liberation for all. To think that 2SLGBTQ+ people are only harmed when 2SLGBTQ+ project funding is cut is to ignore the spaces we've claimed for ourselves and decided to benefit us.
If 2SLGBTQ+ people and musicians are fighting for these spaces, social workers engaging at the community level should also be fighting for these spaces.
CONCLUSION
There appears to be a gap in the literature on the intersection between 2SLGBTQ+ identity and disability in music, and this is an area that should be explored in the future, particularly in terms of how disability shapes the means of music-making and community inclusion for 2SLGBTQ+ people with disabilities. musicians. In the words of one recent attendee: "Being 2SLGBTQ+ sometimes I don't feel safe anywhere, but at least I found some safety when I slept on the gym floor with my friends from the drum group." How do you think your participation in musical ensembles has affected how you feel as a 2SLGBTQ+ person.
Is there any other information relevant to the survey that you would like to share that you were not given the opportunity to in the other questions. Please protect anonymity by not commenting if you participated or tagging friends in the comments. Nothing better or worse than being black, gay, and in the band”: A. qualitative study of gay students participating in historically black college or university marching bands.
LGBTQ music majors' experiences of social climates and developing identities in music education settings [Unpublished master's thesis]. Negative and positive factors associated with the well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. The relationship between large ensemble participation and the social identity of high-performance middle band, orchestra, and choir students [Unpublished doctoral dissertation].
Seeking solace in the music room: Normalized physical spaces in the early childhood environment and resulting impact on transgender children.
