The Science Museum in London has found itself in the middle of a social media firestorm after resurfaced claims from one of its tours suggest that Lego bricks reinforce “heteronormativity” and could be considered anti-LGBT. Yes, really.
The controversy stems from a self-guided tour called “Seeing Things Queerly”, which aims to explore “stories of queer communities, experiences, and identities” through the museum’s collection. The tour was created by the museum’s “gender and sexuality network”, a group of staff and volunteers dedicated to promoting LGBT visibility and inclusion.
Now, here’s where things take a turn.
One of the complaints in the tour guide focuses on the way Lego bricks are described—specifically, that the top of the brick (with protruding pins) is referred to as “male”, while the bottom (with holes to receive the pins) is called “female.” The process of connecting the pieces is even described as “mating.”
According to the tour’s blog post, this is an example of “applying heteronormative language to topics unrelated to gender, sex, and reproduction.” It goes on to argue that this reinforces the idea that heterosexuality and the male/female binary are the norm, shaping how we speak about science and technology.
Once the tour’s claims went viral—after The Telegraph published an article about it—social media users wasted no time ridiculing the idea.
Wait until the Science Museum finds out that human beings have male and female parts that are made to mate with each other https://t.co/XU2HPmxdPC
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) February 6, 2025
Elon Musk simply responded with a clown face emoji, perfectly summarizing what many were thinking.
Ben Shapiro chimed in, writing on X, “Wait until the Science Museum finds out that human beings have male and female parts that are made to mate with each other.”
Other users joined in:
- “The funny thing is that removing the male or female parts from Lego bricks means nothing works and everything collapses.”
- “Seatbelts are also bigoted.”
- “Just wait until they hear about nuts and bolts.”
The overwhelming reaction? Pure disbelief that something as neutral as interlocking plastic bricks could be viewed as problematic.
As the backlash spread, a Science Museum spokesperson gave a statement to The Daily Mail, attempting to downplay the controversy:
“This blog post was published online in 2022 to highlight a small number of objects on display at the museum that relate to LGBTQ+ individuals, experiences, and communities.”
While that statement doesn’t directly address the Lego issue, it does confirm that the post was indeed written with the intention of reinterpreting everyday objects through an LGBT lens.
