Lego unveiled its first LGBT Pride set this week with a 346-piece "Everyone Is Awesome"-themed set featuring the colors of the rainbow flag.
The set, as described on its website, will retail for $34.99 and is dubbed a "buildable display model," with 11 minifigures of different colors standing atop a flag-like base. Although 11 colors are featured in the model, the six colors of the rainbow flag are the centerpiece.
It goes on sale on June 1, the first day of Pride Month. Lego says it will be sold online and in its Lego-branded stores. The "Everyone Is Awesome" name for the set is a tweaked version of the LEGO Movie song, "Everything Is Awesome."
The set was "inspired by the iconic rainbow flag," according to a press release.
Matthew Ashton, vice president of design for Lego, designed the set and said he "wanted to create a model that symbolizes inclusivity and celebrates everyone, no matter how they identify or who they love."
The set, he said, is a "celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community within the LEGO Group and amongst the brand's adult fans." Ashton is gay.
"I am fortunate to be a part of a proud, supportive and passionate community of colleagues and fans," Ashton said. "We share love for creativity and self-expression through LEGO bricks and this set is a way to show my gratitude for all the love and inspiration that is constantly shared."
Each color of the minifigures, he said, has meaning. The black and brown colors "represent the broad diversity of everyone within the LGBTQIA+ community," he said. The pale blue, white and pink colors are meant to "support and embrace the trans community as well."
"I purposely put the purple drag queen in as a clear nod to the fabulous side of the LGBTQIA+ community," he said.
Albert Mohler, a theologian and the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said Christians need to ask practical questions when discussing the Lego "Everyone Is Awesome" set.
"Is it true that a child playing with this new 'Everyone is awesome' Lego set is going to feel affirmed?" he asked Friday on his podcast, The Briefing. "... I think it probably will not. It's hard for me to believe that a child in a moment of individual anxiety … is going to find any kind of adequate solace in a set of plastic bricks."
Christians, Mohler said, need to "lean" into the issue and address the brokenness people feel.
"There's a hurt here that cries out for Christian attention. That hurt is at the deepest level of personal identity. That anxiety is at the deepest level of personal security. There's a pain and anxiety. There is very clearly a fear that is represented even in the voice of a child here for which the answer supposedly is the 'Everyone is awesome' Lego set," Mohler said. "... It's a reminder to us that there is a deep human need, and it is not unique to those who are now the intended purchasers of the 'Everyone is awesome' set. It's a problem that is common to all humanity, for whom the only answer is singular – Christ."
Photo courtesy: ©Lego
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
