Their relationship was later included in the New South Wales education syllabus to help explain to children that “love comes in all shapes and sizes”. Large, inflatable versions of Sphen and Magic featured on a float at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade in 2021. They drew a crowd of national and international fans to the aquarium, and were included in an episode of the Netflix series Atypical, about a teenage boy on the autism spectrum. They were even given a portmanteau – Sphengic – like any other celebrity couple.
Tributes on the aquarium’s website describe them as “equality icons,” and Sphen as “a champion” who had a “wonderful and positive impact on the world”. “You were just being a penguin, but to us all, your love was so brave and so beautiful,” wrote one user. “You taught the world so much,” said another.
Not everyone was a fan. The aquarium said some visitors objected to the word “gay” and suggested that maybe Sphen and Magic were “just friends”. Some accused them of politicising the penguins: the now-defunct Right-wing Family First political party in Australia said their relationship was “concocted” propaganda.
And there has long been outrage from conservatives over the children’s book And Tango Makes Three, inspired by New York’s gay penguins, that has seen it banned from some American schools and libraries. It frequently makes the The American Library Association (ALA)’s list of most frequently challenged books.
But all the while, Sphen and Magic were getting on with filling their empty nest. When they successfully hatched their first chick in October 2018 after a trial run with a dummy egg, they were the only penguins in their colony to do so in that breeding season. Save for a few hysterical headlines about the penguin chick being “genderless” – penguins cannot be sexed until they have reached maturity – it was a runaway success.