During an Instagram Q&A with fans yesterday, Keiynan Lonsdale was if he’s gay, to which he responded: “I’m still surprised I get this question. I came out not really as anything last year, but as not straight. Now it just depends on the day.”
The Love, Simon actor continued: “Sometimes I’m bisexual, sometimes I’m gay, sometimes I feel straight, sometimes I’m not anything. It doesn’t matter. Either way, throughout all of that, I’m Keiynan. So if your question is, ‘Am I Keiynan?’ yes, I am Keiynan.”
Related: Keiynan Lonsdale offers pointer on letting “the balls breathe” during these hot summer months
The 26-year-old first came out on Instagram in May 2017, writing: “I like to change my hair, I like to take risks with how I dress, I like girls, & I like guys (yes), I like growing, I like learning, I like who I am and I really like who I’m becoming.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUBaxprAm-F/?utm_source=ig_embed
During yesterday’s Q&A, Lonsdale also talked about his new preferred pronoun, telling fans: “Okay, this might sound stupid, but I don’t care. I don’t think this is offensive… but, I don’t want to go by ‘he’ anymore, I just want to go by ‘tree’.”
Yes, you read that correctly. He said tree.
Related: Keiynan Lonsdale posts revealing photo, asks “Why is it deemed wrong to not wear clothes?”
He continued: “I want people to call me ‘tree’, because we all come from trees, so it doesn’t matter if you’re a he or a she or a they or a them. At the end of the day, everyone’s a tree. I want to call my friends tree, and me tree, and everyone tree.”
“So, I think like now when people ask me what my preferred pronoun is, I’m going to say ‘tree’. I’m not high by the way, this is just me.”
Lonsdale, who recently opened up about his dislike for wearing clothes, followed that up by posting a few pictures of himself and trees:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoH4ckVAkvx/?taken-by=keiynanlonsdale
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoHg_E5ggPZ/?taken-by=keiynanlonsdale
Watch the Q&A below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4kv84rTmJ0
Kangol
Not sure about “tree,” but it sounds like they’re describing themself as a non-binary queer person, which is cool. Not everyone knows the current terminology or even basic science about human sexualities or our biological origins, but Lonsdale’s living what many people have been describing for some time, so good for and more power to them/tree!
Donston
I don’t really feel the need to say I’m anything but a gay male unless pressed. However, I can relate. Hell, I’d wager that at least 50% of gay, homo, bi, queer, pan, non-binary, fluid, genderfluid, etc. identifying people have dimensions and contradictions within their orientation and sense of gender. It’s the whole tree stuff and obsession with telling people he wants to be naked all the time that makes people like him and Nico not get taken seriously. Instead of speaking straightforwardly and practically about their sense of self, their nuances, their preferences, their struggles, they end up being too focused on trying to sound complex and elusive. They end up coming off like pretentious headcases because they’re too scared to just be real about their traumas, their nuances and their struggles. It seems women like Janelle Monae, St. Vincent, Ruby Rose do a better job at expressing themselves authentically, explaining their struggles, unabashedly going after what they want, never exuding shame and never seeming like they’re weighed down by the past or are in fear of the future. A lot of these males still have a long ways to go. Of course, our culture makes these things quite a bit easier for cis women to grasp and to express.
However, here’s no real reason to come down on the dude. He’s still pretty young. And unlike with Nico he’s not a hacky leech that’s constantly plugging something. People also need to remember that a big reason why “gay” became such an embraced identity to begin with was due to a lot of people not liking the idea of their sense of self and who they wanted to be with being whittled down to merely sexual attractions or sexual preferences. People were actively separating themselves from “homosexual” and even “bisexual”. So, this type of stuff is not just from the younger generation. Every generation looks to expand. Though that “expanding” can come off awkward.
KevInSD
He isn’t referring to his sexuality or his “biological origin” dummy.
Kangol
@KevininSD, dummy, Lonsdale specifically said we are descended from trees. Quote: “because we all come from trees.”
Can you read, dummy? That’s “biological origin,” dummy!
Also, Lonsdale IS talking both about gender and sexuality, dummy. Read the article again, dummy!
Before you decide to spew your ignorant sh!t, dummy, be sure you know what you’re talking about, dummy!
QueerTruth
This is silly. I respect challenging labels. But to say “call me a tree” rather than he or she or they is childish and completely defeats any ideas of non-binary as a real. It makes a mockery of it.
mr guy
The ever expanding LGBTQIAPK+ opens iits branches to enfold our new arboreal family
queerty02
Keiynan no longer wants to be ignored. He is desperate for fame and will say anything to get it.
Hussain-TheCanadian
I have to admit, I find it both annoying and fascinating that straight people are now “correcting” me when I say LGBT – I’m going to start calling straights “SLW” (Straight, lost, and wondering).
DCguy
In other words, LGB or T erasure.
mr guy
If tree identifies as a tree—maybe having the the soul of a tree—then tree is a tree, bigot! Prove tree is not a tree
Donston
Yes, he can sound ridiculous and nonsensical. However, if the dude doesn’t know who he is or what he wants then he’s not “erasing” anything. He’s just living his life and trying to figure things out as he goes along. The whole lgbtq thing is so politicized and so driven by sociology that I can understand wanting to separate yourself from it, especially when younger.
Just don’t be scared to go after what you want and don’t exude shame (or a constant desperation to retain a sense of heteronormalcy if you want to fo’ real be with someone that’s not the opposite cis gender). That’s all I ask from anyone.
DCguy
@mr guy
Actually, you’re the bigot, passing along the debunked story that one can change orientations and that going straight is an option etc…
I get it, you are an advocate for the closet.
SnakeyJ
@mrguy: tree is not a tree because you can scientifically prove he is a male. It’s amazing how now that being gay is accepted, the newer generation has nothing to rebel against, so they make up nonsense. He’s obviously gay. Very gay. But still wants to be special. Can you see why we need Jordan Peterson now? This pronoun stuff is getting ridiculous.
Donston
SnakeyJ, I do feel that, yes, a decent amount of gay/homosexual/homo-dominant/homo-leaning people stay obsessed with feeling like victims, stay obsessed with trying to avoid the word “gay” because they’re not absolutely 100% inherently homo or feel 100% cis gender, and stay obsessed with wanting to feel special or different. But there isn’t a problem with someone not knowing what they want or being real about their nuances. The whole tree stuff is where he lost the plot.
It would be nice for the consensus definition of “gay” to once again become simply having overall fulfillment and relationship ambitions that are not towards your opposite cis gender. And then you can get more specific from there. That would help stop so much of the division, the manipulation, the confusion as to what to identify as, the desperation to retain a sense of heteronormalcy and the narcissism. It would also help give less weight to sex and sexual behaviors. But that general shift is simply not going to happen.
Bob LaBlah
To be frank I have tired of him and I’m willing to bet that the producers of The Flash are as well. I have no problem with his sexuality but EVERY time he opens his mouth is all about his sexuality and to make things even worse three quarters of all pictures he releases he is the only one in the pic. This kid has problems that seem hard to believe the producers don’t see as well. Its time to get a new Kid Flash and let he and whatever it is he identifies as go on its merry way.
KevInSD
So sick of this expanding mental illness and particularly sick of how it has latched onto LGB people. This tree nonsense has as much to do with being gay as transgenderism and intersex do. That is to say, nothing.
As for the actor himself, I wish we could trade him in for Bram.
Donston
Well, us “queers” are more likely to suffer from some variety mental illnesses for a multitude of different reasons. It just is what it is. And being empathetic, not dismissive, is the key.
I would like to get to a place where we place less weight on identity but also stop trying to cover up trauma, confusion, nuance, frustration, destructive instincts, self-resentment, misandry, misogyny, etc. with hippy, dippy nonsense and “fun” and just be real.
BShade77
piss off
StraightnNarrow
Wishful thinking! I am not going anywhere.
Donston
Not knowing exactly who you are or what you want in your 20’s is not some crime. But a lot of people just don’t know how to handle having nuances or contradictions all that well. While a lot of dudes don’t know how to deal with having some attractions or affections towards a certain type of person but just not being persistently all that into that type of person, especially if they’re ultimately homo or trans leaning.
Mozo83
I agree. They even post stupid shit in the comment sections of gay sites. Go figure, huh?
Mr-DJ
Not going anywhere? You need to – go be with your own kind, since you seem pretty adamant about that being very “narrow”ly defined. Or are you actually confused…?
And deviant? Again, you are the one who has deviated from your ‘straightnNarrow’. The rest of us have not deviated from the existence WE were created for.
Xzamilloh
Power to the journey… but, I’m just… it’s exhausting.
Polaro
Tree? No, not going to happen. This nonsense trivializes us and makes us look stupid. Tree? You have got to be kidding, right? These people are committed to nothing, but their own inflated egos. Transgender people are fully committed to a gender. Non-binary people are committed to nothing but causing a scene and forcing people to utter nonsense. Not today, Satan.
Donston
Some people just don’t want to say, “I don’t want to commit to any label and my sense of self changes all the time and I don’t quite know what I want”. And then just keep it pushing. It also seems many guys just don’t like admitting that despite whatever dimensions of fluidity that they have they’d prefer to be with a chick or prefer to be with a dude. It seems many fear not getting attention and admiration from everyone if they do that, fear being seen as “gay” or fear being seen as not queer enough. I think these are the main reasons we keep getting ridiculous quotes like this tree stuff and keep getting pleas for attention.
I am getting a bit tired of individuals who don’t truly feel like a different gender and who don’t truly want to be with anyone that’s not the opposite cis gender trying to dominate and be at the forefront of the “queer community”.
ElPillo
He’s right. It sounds stupid. Gender and sexuality are different things anyway, you pinecone
OzJosh
The worrying thing here is that readers are attempting a heated ideological debate over a person who wants to be called “tree”. How and when did everybody get to be so stupid?
DarkZephyr
Well…Tree’s hot anyway.
Lacuevaman
ok. shall we call it “it”?
for God’s sake…. how f’ing idiotic can you queens get???
eeebee333
I guess I said some pretty dumbass things too when I was young.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Trying to figure out how he came up with “tree”….he has me stumped on that one……
Kangol
They/tree thinks we descended from trees so they/tree wants to go back to our putative roots, before society’s gendering effects take hold. That’s how I viewed it.
Donston
But we actually didn’t descend from trees. Our “ancestors” were around way before there were trees. Gender was around way before trees as well. So, it doesn’t make much sense to look at it that way.
surreal33
Interesting sort of like the shape of my stool it too changes daily however, at end of the day it is still shit. Much like the bullshit Mr Lonsdale is spewing.
djmcgamester
Whether you like men, women, neither or both, what has that to do with being called “he”. Some days I don’t like anyone. I’m still gay.
cynicalsteve
Um, who…?
Toofie
What exactly makes him a deviant? You might not like the pronoun stuff, but that hardly makes him a deviant.
Mr_Heffel
To me it sounds like this current generation doesn’t know how to deal with their emotions. One day you feel masculine, feminine and then…nothing.
If you compare a single parent to this then you can say they play all these roles when having to raise a child. They have to be more masculine, feminine at times with what roles they are taking on and then of course feel nothing bc they are drained.
Sexuality, gender and emotions may seem to be on the same spectrum yet intertwined at times, but are defined clearly. This new binary, when I read it, seems to go back to LGBTQ solely.
To be frank this current generation needs to buck up and have a reality check. Your not special, quit trying to be, social media isn’t fame, and at the end of the day we are all human! We all eat, sleep and shit the same.
No one cares how you identify sexually or gender.
Be a bigger person and learn something useful that will help your fellow man. Rise above your own me me attitude and look at the world through all lenses, NOT just the LGBTQI… bubble you are enclosing yourself in.
Donston
I’m not sure it’s about self-obsession so much as self-consciousness. Because “queers” are more likely to have had past traumas, more likely to suffer from dimensions and some degree of multiple personality disorder, more likely to constantly deal with feeling abnormal, more likely to feel ostracized, more likely to feel great amounts of shame- it all inevitably makes sense of self an overwhelming aspect of your life and thought process. Self-understanding is important. But you have to be able to step outside of yourself, be a practical human being and also not take everything so seriously. And you definitely need to make sure you don’t get to the point of wanting people to call you “tree”.
ShowMeGuy
If a tree jumps up and down yelling “look at me look at me” in the forest and nobody is there to notice……is the tree’s 15 minutes of fame used up?
Bob LaBlah
Not if the tree is in the Ozarks. lol lol
Lookyloo
Look. “Love, Simon” did pretty well at the box office for a gay-indie
But this guy is FAR BETTER KNOWN for being Kid Flash on the CW series’ “The Flash” and “Legends of Tomorrow” — Like 55 episodes in the last 3 years well known.
And it’s kind of a big deal that a young male actor (and an actor of color) is out, in any way, while playing a superhero on popular TV shows.
DarkZephyr
I think you mean a young tree actor.
BGinBigD
All I gots to say is gurrrl, puhleeze!