Demi Lovato Slams Gender Reveal Parties, Calling Them Transphobic

Demi Lovato has condemned gender reveal parties, calling them “both insincere and incorrect to pretend that gender reveal parties are not transphobic.” The singer and actress shared a lengthy post from gender-nonconforming author and speaker Alok Vaid Menon on Instagram and thanked them in the caption for their words. “Thank you for sharing your knowledge and educating us always,” she said.

“This is not about political correctness, it’s just … correct,” the post says. “We condemn gender reveals not because of our identity, but because of reality.” It continues on saying, “gender reveals are based on the illusion that genitals = gender and that there are only two options ‘boy or girl.’”

“This definition erases the fact that there are boys with vaginas and girls with penises and that there are people who are neither boys nor girls. The idea that sex is based on genitalia is inconsistent with science,” the post asserts. “The refusal to acknowledge this stems from a misunderstanding of what transphobia is. Transphobia is not just prejudice or violence against an individual trans person, it is a belief system that presumes non-trans people to be more “natural” than trans people. Only individual people can self-determine their gender,” Lovato wrote.

During the Coronavirus pandemic, the gender reveal party craze certainly got hotter, the LA Times reports. While there are still people choosing to host parties with multiple people present, those following the shelter-in-place laws in many states have resorted to putting on a different show for live-streamed gatherings. A gender reveal gone wrong in El Dorado managed to deliver a large wildfire that ravaged the part of California due to smoke-generating pyrotechnics.

The blogger who popularized the trend has since revealed she’s had some regrets about holding the party since changing her views on gender in 2019. The new views come from her mother. “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,” Karvunidis says.

“I know it’s been harmful to some individuals. It’s 2019, we don’t need to get our joy by giving others pain,” she says. “I think there’s a new way to have these parties.” It’s to, “celebrate the baby,” she says. “There’s no way to have a cake to cut into it, to see if they’re going to like chess. Let’s just have a cake.”