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Father-to-Be Killed By Gender Reveal Contraption He Built

Christopher Pekny

A man based in the Catskills is one of several people to die from a gender reveal-related incident in recent years. 

Another person has died because of a gender reveal party: The contraption a New York State dad-to-be was constructing exploded and killed him Sunday, according to The New York Times.

The pipelike device intended to reveal the gender of the baby 28-year-old Christopher Pekny and his girlfriend were having went off unexpectedly, not only killing him but injuring his 27-year-old brother, Michael Pekny.

A mason who was also a "gifted mechanic," Christopher "was really looking forward to starting a family." according to his older brother Peter Pekny. "He was really starting to settle down and grow up," Peter Pekny said.

Members of the Pekny family, well-known in their community, own the Robin Hood Diner in Liberty, N.Y., in the Catskills.

A statement on the diner's Facebook page reads: "We appreciate the overwhelming display of love and support that you all have shown. The Robin Hood will be closed for the immediate future."

Beyond upholding the outmoded gender binary, gender reveal parties have become vectors of calamity over the years.

Christopher Pekny is one of several people who've died in recent years because of one. Just last year, a firefighter died fighting a blaze sparked by a gender reveal party gone awry in the El Dorado fire in California. That wildfire burned more than 21,000 acres as it raged for days in September.

In 2019, one such party led to a plane crash. In another gender reveal party gone bad, a 56-year-old woman died in Iowa after the device the family constructed for the occasion acted as a pipe bomb. The day after that incident, an explosion from another gender reveal in Iowa reportedly shook homes as far as two miles away.

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Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.