This couple's 'gender reveal party' caused a 10-acre wildfire

There’s a lot going on in the world right now. But it seems that it’s going to take more than a potentially deadly global pandemic to stop people from causing havoc and destruction during elaborate “gender reveal” parties.

We're not going to sit on the fence here: gender reveal parties are ridiculously problematic. Throwing a party to announce the sex of your child while conflating this with its gender identity (and assuming these will match) in 2020? No thanks.

But these events have become known for the utter devastation they seem to cause on a regular basis, from plane crashes to wildfires.

The most recent gender reveal party to be blazed in flames happened last week in Florida.

A misguided party host in Brevard County, Florida, reportedly used an explosive called Tannerite and a weapon within their reveal display, accidentally sparking a 10-acre fire

The incident bears alarming similarity to an Arizona gender reveal that quite literally went up in flames in 2017. A Border Patrol agent shot a target filled with blue powder and Tannerite and it ended up causing 47,000-acre fire which resulted in $8m in damage.

In response to the latest gender reveal disaster, Brevard County Fire Rescue chief Mark Schollmeyer told WESH-2, said:

Something as seemingly innocent as a gender reveal can turn into a large-scale disaster where homes are threatened.

Especially during all these potential Covid responses and medical responses, it can quickly overwhelm resources — and by that, I mean it will leave no resources to respond to those medical calls when needed.

Of course there’s lots of gender reveal parties which don’t go up in flames, but it’s as good a reason as any to press pause on this new-age problematic tradition.