The Oxford Handbook of Queer and Gender Studies in Music Education

Gender and sexuality are not simply matters of human classification; rather, they are complex systems of individual identity that remain unfixed and mobile, unfolding over time as identities that are socially constructed rather than biologically codified.Historically, gender (and sexual identity) have functioned as a means to understanding social relationships, regulating behavior, and categorizing humans.Gender binaries and heteronormativity have served as powerful social structures to restrict, marginalize, and often disappear LGBTQ and gender expansive persons from visibility in many contexts; including classrooms.Within recent years, however, scholars across all disciplines have worked to address this absence, creating space for LGBTQ and gender expansive narratives to emerge in scholarship.This contemporary research explores identity in more fluid terms, allowing for a spectrum, of sorts, that acknowledges several intersecting factors when considering how sexuality is understood o