A planned gender reveal party has claimed another life, this time of the father-to-be.
Christopher Pekny, 28, was expecting the birth of his first child when he and his younger brother, Michael, began planning a gender reveal party.
The two men from Liberty, N.Y. decided to rig a small device to emit an either blue or pink blast during the big reveal moment of a gathering for family and friends later that night.
The device malfunctioned, killing Christopher and seriously injuring Michael, N.Y. State Police said in a statement.
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Related: A woman has died from a ‘gender reveal party’ explosion. Let that sink in.
“It has been two nights in a row of not being able to sleep, waiting, hoping to hear that this is all some crazy misunderstanding,” Michael told The Washington Post. “But we all know that’s not the reality here.”
Tragic accidents have unfortunately become increasingly common at gender reveal parties, as couples try to up the ante on stunts to announce whether their unborn baby is male or female. And while the prospect of death and destruction is a pretty good argument for stopping the practice, many queer critics argue the very notion of the trend, which dates to a 2008 parenting blog post by Jenna Karvunidis, is sorely outdated as sex and gender are not the same thing.
Karvunidis herself, who popularized gender reveal parties after her blog post about her own went viral, is among those pleading with parents-to-be to stop.
After a gender reveal party explosion caused a massive fire to spread in California over Labor Day weekend last year, she said:
“Stop having these stupid parties. For the love of God, stop burning things down to tell everyone about your kid’s penis. No one cares but you.”
Related: WATCH: New video shows exact moment a gender reveal party started a 47,000 acre wildfire
Karvunidis also gave this 10-year update on her child, who received the “original gender reveal party”:
“Plot twist!” she wrote in a Facebook post that went viral. “The baby from the original gender reveal party is a girl who wears suits. She says ‘she’ and ‘her’ and all of that, but you know she really goes outside gender norms.”
“She’s telling me ‘Mom, there are many genders. Mom, there’s many different sexualities and all different types,’ and I take her lead on that,” she wrote.
John
How did Christopher give a statement to the Washington Post if he’s dead?
Charlie in Charge
Fortunately the Washington Post has a Ouija division. One of the many reasons our venerable journalistic institutions must be preserved in this changing age.
ShiningSex
they meant Michael. He gave the statement.
nm4047
maybe the above article has been correct, but I read it as Michael gave the statement to the Post.
Monkey1
“It has been two nights in a row of not being able to sleep, waiting, hoping to hear that this is all some crazy misunderstanding,” Christopher told The Washington Post. “But we all know that’s not the reality here.”
Uhm… I thought Christopher died. This was said by a third brother Peter.
Kangol2
“Michael,” not “Christopher.” Queerty appears to have screwed up, not the Washington Post. To Queerty’s credit, they did correct the story.
Mister P
They should be called genital reveal parties.
Prinny
What does this got to do with gay people?
EdWoody
It’s more about how heteros be crazy, thus making us feel superior.
Openminded
Just another spin off of how social media drives so many people to think they have to “go viral” and “be somebody important”. Hopefully this country will soon learn “going viral” gets you nowhere. Why does everybody have to celebrate everything they do on social media?
darklight413
Gender reveal parties are ridiculous. People who throw them, straight or not, are selfish and narcissistic. First of all, you’d have to be to have a kid now.
GayMafiaKingpin
Dan Tracer, I think you need to proofread your article. You have a dead guy being quoted as saying something supposedly after he’s died. And the last few paragraphs are just confusing if you’re not familiar with individual gender reveal parties. A girl who wears suits? Is this supposed to mean something?
ShiningSex
Hahahahahahahahaha!!!! F8cking morons!!! Do they not read how many times these stupid things have led to injury, fires, and death???? BYE!!!
MHaumesser
I don’t have a problem with gender reveal parties. I get it, parents are excited to have a child. But what happened to having a cake colored pink or blue? You reveal the sex of the child and everyone gets cake!
blackhook
Too bad this dimwit had already reproduced… #DarwinCalling
Liquid Silver
I kinda wonder why this is on Queerty, but very well.
As an object lesson, if the words “rig” or “device” are involved in any project, you should probably rethink what you’re doing. If “detonator” appear at any point, a redesign is probably in order.
It’s fun to note that half of this year’s planned Christmas presents actually do have “device” in their project design plan, but anything powered by 3 AA batteries isn’t that powerful anyway and only minimal circuit design will be called for. 🙂
Dwight
Yeah, but was he having a boy or a girl?
Seriously, what is that child going to feel when they learn how their father died?
Kangol2
So, I think this is on Queerty not only because it’s about the stupid thing that hetero parents do (though some LGBTQ parents have gender reveal parties too), but the original “gender reveal” pioneer Jenna Karvunidis, who’s mentioned above, held one of these parties and now wonderfully has a child who pushes back against binary and rigid understandings of gender. So there’s that queer irony.
ingyaom
Was the deadly explosion pink or blue? We have a right to know.
Openminded
I heard it was kinda Flesh colored with splatters of Red.
JessPH
Can breeders please just go back to cakes with either blue or pink chiffon.
Cam
Straight people seem to think everybody else is as excited for whatever is happening in their lives as they are. (See: Bachelorette Parties).
corktownboy
Bachelorette parties in gay bars are the worst (imo)…..you have your own spaces.
HMFan
Can we just STOP with this gender reveal bullshit already? NO ONE CARES WHAT THE SEX OF YOUR BABY IS EXCEPT YOU.