INTERVIEW – His Black Queerness, Front and Center: “Love, Simon” star Keiynan Lonsdale talks defiant solo album, social justice uprising and embracing his Black queer identity

Once Keiynan Lonsdale made no apologies for who he is, the music followed suit. The star of the CW’s The Flash and 2018’s gay teen comedy Love, Simon celebrates his Black queer identity on his 14-track anthemic solo debut Rainbow Boy. Dance-pop song "Gay Street Fighter" is an audacious strut of a rally cry, proclaiming that even God is gay. And with a shout out to "my non-binary bitches," "White Noise" and its buoyant groove lifts the stories of Black people that have fallen through the cracks.
Lonsdale’s album comes at the same time as Love, Victor, the Love, Simon spin-off on Hulu. In the series, the 28-year-old Aussie star reprises his role as quiet high-schooler Bram and becomes instrumental in Victor’s journey to authenticity.
When I recently connected with Lonsdale during a Zoom call, he was riding out the last two days of his mandatory 14-day quarantine in a hotel in Australia. At one point, the phone rang. And then it rang again. "Don’t mind me," Lonsdale said, laughing. "I’m in the Australian quarantine right now, and so, actually, they call and check on you each day."
In quarantine, Lonsdale has been able to "take stock of the album release, the state of the world..." He laughs again. "And the state of myself."
GayCalgary: Were you feeling as defiant as the music on this album when you recorded it, or was it a personal manifestation?
Keiynan Lonsdale: Yeah, I was 100 percent feeling just as defiant. The songs were written, for the most part, pretty easily. There was so much that was ready to be expressed. And I think the momentum kept building, because I hadn’t...