The Stonewall National Monument could become an official Lego set, if one artist’s project succeeds. While it won’t make up for the shameful distortion of the monument’s history by the current U.S. government, it would be a joyful reminder of the heritage and importance of this LGBTQIA+ landmark.
The creator, known as “Feacebricks” within the Lego community, is actually an Italian amateur artist named Flavio who has lovingly built a 3,750-piece model of the monument and peopled it with a variety of Lego Minifigs. He shared it in mid-January on Lego Ideas, the virtual community that allows people to generate interest for their creations. If more than 10,000 people express interest, the company’s Lego Review Board will evaluate it for potential production and sale as a real Lego set. As of this writing, it needs just under 1,400 additional supporters to move to this next step. No financial commitment is needed, simply an indication that you like the project.
Feacebricks explains that “Representing this iconic place with a LEGO set is a opportunity to combine creativity, play, and education, while also telling the everyday lifes of LGBTQIA+ people, and sharing stories that inspires people around the world.” It “[offers] builders a journey through history and a celebration of diversity.”
Not everyone sees the need to remember those lives and that history accurately, however. In response to recent executive orders, the National Park Service (NPS) removed references to transgender and queer people from the real Stonewall National Monument’s website several weeks ago, wrongly and unconscionably erasing their pivotal contributions to the Stonewall Riots and LGBTQ history. A Lego set won’t remedy that (and wasn’t intended to, as Feacebricks launched it before the NPS move)—but it can help us remember and celebrate our history, no matter what anyone else tries to do.
The set includes the Stonewall Inn, Christopher Street, Christopher Park, and the building at 59 Christopher Street, once an office of the Mattachine Society (an early LGBTQ rights group) and here reimagined as “a bar, the apartment of a transgender woman who is passionate about LEGO, and the office of an LGBTQIA+ helpline.”
In addition to that trans woman, the Minifigs include a man proposing marriage to another; two women and their baby; a tourist couple and their child; a drag queen and her audience; a bartender and two customers; a counselor at the helpline; and the Gay Liberation sculpture by artist George Segal. Transgender icons and Stonewall Riot participants Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera show up as Minifig “photos” on the wall of the performance space. There are also fun details like the signs and sparkly lights in the Inn’s window, the placards representing the Virtual Fence Exhibit, and the rainbow crosswalk, not to mention a plethora of rainbow flags.
The Lego Group itself produced the LGBTQ-themed set “Everyone Is Awesome” in 2021, and the Legoland Discovery Center in Yonkers created a Miniature Pride Parade display in honor of the Stonewall 50th Anniversary in 2019.
Visit Feacebricks’ Stonewall National Monument project page for additional photos of his creation and more information. If you’d like to encourage Lego to produce it for sale, join Lego Ideas yourself (it’s free!) and click the Support button on the project page. Then help spread the word!
