Danish toymaker LEGO is releasing its first LGBTQ set of figurines, reports The Guardian.
The set features 11 figures against a rainbow-colored background, which also encompasses black and brown stripes, and the colors of the trans flag. The set is entitled ‘Everyone Is Awesome.’
The set was initially designed by an LGBTQ staff member at LEGO, Matthew Ashton, to brighten up his desk.
“I’d moved offices, so wanted to make the space feel like home with something that reflected me and the LGBTQIA+ community I’m so proud to be a part of. Other members of Lego’s LGBTQ+ community came by to tell me they loved it,” Ashton said. “So I thought, ‘maybe it’s something we should share’.”
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“Growing up as an LGBTQ+ kid – being told what I should play with, how I should walk, how I should talk, what I should wear – the message I always got was that somehow I was ‘wrong’,” Ashton said.
“Trying to be someone I wasn’t was exhausting … I wish I’d seen an inclusive statement that said ‘everyone is awesome’.”
Related: The new Apple Watch Pride edition is here with added color stripes
Ashton says the figures are non-gendered, and “express individuality, while remaining ambiguous”. Except for one: The purple one with a beehive wig, who is “a clear nod to all the fabulous drag queens out there.”
The set will go on sale on June 1, the first day of Pride Month.
On Twitter, LEGO also announced the set.
“We’re super excited to reveal our new set – LEGO Everyone is Awesome! Because we celebrate every LEGO builder.”
We’re super excited to reveal our new set – LEGO Everyone is Awesome! Because we celebrate every LEGO builder ❤️🌈 #LEGO #EveryoneIsAwesome pic.twitter.com/J7KSz3zWik
— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) May 20, 2021
Expect the imminent announcement of a boycott by the Christian pressure group, One Million Moms!
Related: One Million Moms in predictable frenzy over the release of…a doll
Harley
Oh, no. Monica Cole’s head is going to be all splodey.
Sqwoah
This is so cringe
rickywintour
Go back to the trash can where you belong troll.
LumpyPillows
While I despise the butchering of the gay flag as a affront to our hard-fought history, I think this is brilliant.
ShiningSex
As a person of color, I will not accept the updated pride flag. It should represent us all not just black/brown.
The idea that others accept it shows how we easily throw away the past that got us here with our fight. People of color were a large part of that fight, but were not the only ones. The flag should have remained as the original one. We should take pride in the original flag that nothing to do with a specific race.
RyanMBecker
Shiningsex, you’re clearly clueless about Ashton’s concept. Black and brown are not the only racial colors. White, yellow and red are already there, coinciding with the rainbow and trans flags. See my detailed post below for more info.
msfrost
It not for Silvia Rivera, a transwoman, you would still have no nights. Acknowledge your debt!!!
Fahd
Not a big fan of plastic stuff, even Danish plastic stuff, but if they must.
A portion of profits should go to an LGBTQ+ cause of some kind – I’d suggest something for homeless young people.
Catholicslutbox
I miss the classic rainbow flag…
ShiningSex
As a person of color myself, I don’t accept the updated pride flag. The pride flag should reflect us all not just one or two races.
RyanMBecker
Why? The rainbow flag is still there, embedded within a more inclusive palette.
ShiningSex
I still don’t agree with the pride flag having a brown/black stripe. I am a person of color and feel the pride flag represents all of us in the community. Not one or two races, but all of us. That black/brown stripe segregates us. The colors didn’t represent a race. this “new” flag does and shouldn’t. That’s what the individual pride flags are for.
Sqwoah
The original rainbow flag was pretty juvenile and uninspired too. It always looked like some kid got a new box of crayola magic markers and did the most obvious thing imaginable with them. Too childish, too “on the nose.”
jw8890
Jesus christ youre like a broken record!
cuteguy
Why do they call it one million moms if they’re no where near one million members?
RyanMBecker
One Million Moms is a complete scam. Not only does it lack a million members, it actually has no members. It’s not even a group. It’s nothing more than a sub-website belonging to the American Family Association that focuses on media boycotts. The Southern Poverty Center and other hate group monitors don’t have any entry on them even though they include the AFA as homophobic. A “membership” means nothing more than joining their mailing list. And plenty of us are on the list just to monitor and mock their lunacy. If fact, it alerts gay activists to gay shows and commercials that they may otherwise miss. And many activists actually praise and patronize the companies they alert us to boycott so it’s counterproductive. It’s hilarious how they take credit when a show’s cancellation has nothing to do with their boycott. Or when a gay-positive commercial no longer airs because the campaign simply finished its scheduled run. And of course, they don’t list their many failures.
One Million Mom’s most ridiculous campaign was against a Geico ad featuring Maxwell the Pig. The amusing commerical featured the talking pig on a date with a human female. That caused the “moms” to accuse Geico of encouraging bestiality. Needless to say, few people joined their protest and the ad was not pulled off the air.
msfrost
Nor,even any female members!!
Thad
This new LEGO set was praised on Philafelphia local TV news yesterday. We are the city that added the stripes to our version of the rainbow flag, after all.
Looks like fun.
JessPH
The US is the ONLY place where this idiocy of black and brown stripes are added. In most countries, they stick with the original RAINBOW colors. Because the colors of the Pride Flag never represent groups of people. They represent ideas.
RyanMBecker
LEGO is a Danish company and designer Matthew Ashton is British so you’re wrong. Their official site prices this in Euros so this set was clearly not marketed specifically for Americans.
Furthermore, few non-black/brown countries have as many black and brown people as America so you really can’t make such a comparison. Nor do most nations owe as much to black slaves, or host as many brown immigrants.
Matthewnow
I agree totally. The original flag was ALL INCLUSIVE. Grow up world.
RyanMBecker
To the people who are complaining about the addition of Black and Brown, look at the title of this set: “EVERYONE is Awesome.” It’s not “Gays are Awesome.” The community has expanded a lot since Gilbert Baker designed the flag. At the time, it was simply the Gay and Lesbian community, as you can see from the names of many organizations of the time. Even bisexuals were not included, and often rejected as wishy-washy. And transexuals were openly alienated as an embarrassment by gay males. Then the community gradually became more inclusive and the acronym went from GL to LG to LGB to LGBT to LGBTQ to LGBTQI to LGBTQIA and finally, LGBTQIA+. In other words, to use limit yourself to Baker’s original colors is anachronistic.
LEGO decided that focusing on sexuality is too limiting so they decided to make the set inclusive of EVERYONE. Again, read the title. The gay-trans colors happen to coincide with some traditional racial colors: white (Caucasian), yellow (Asian) and red (Native American and other indigenous peoples). So why not include black (African) and brown (Latino) as well?
TL;DR – the title of this set is “EVERYONE is Awesome.” Enuff said.
RyanMBecker
My girlfriend just reminded me… Black isn’t just African, but Afro-Caribbean and South American, and Brown also includes Middle Eastern.
Sqwoah
at the end of the day, it’s an ugly piece of plastic crap
msfrost
So are, you!!!
vendro
My partner is going to love this, he loves LEGOs.
whateverokok
I think the whole flag thing is stupid. It’s not like the flag of the U.S. it’s just some dumb ass flag used back in the day to let queers identify themselves to other queers so they can hookup and no one would know what was going on. A flag no more represents you than a hole in the wall. What represents me cannot be contained on one small flag. And what represents me would never exist in today’s world with all this PC bullcrap. Thank god for MTV and 120 Minutes. And thank god for people with the balls to say what needed to be said and didn’t care if you got offended.
Invader7
Wow. Some people are way TOO serious. Always bitching and criticizing EVERYTHING. Just enjoy the Legos. I LOVE Legos.. Especially the Old School 1960’s Legos. And if you have a beef with the company , write LEGO a letter. And just deal with it and get over it. There are way too many other important issues to get your knickers in a twist about…