California man federally charged for threats against Merriam-Webster over ‘woman’ and ‘female’ definitions

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Federal prosecutors have accused a California man of targeting the oldest dictionary publisher in the US with violent, anti-LGBT+ threats that reportedly forced the company’s offices to close for five days.

A criminal complaint issued in US District Court in Massachusetts alleges that 34-year-old Jeremy David Hanson wrote threatening comments through Merriam-Webster’s website and in the comments section for entries related to “woman” and “female,” including suggesting the authors should be “hunted down and shot” and wishing employees “should all be killed.”

“There is no such thing as ‘gender identity,’” he wrote in 2021 under the entry for “female,” according to prosecutors. “The imbecile who wrote this entry should be hunted down and shot.”

A message Mr Hanson reportedly sent through the website’s “contact us” page said the company’s headquarters “should be shot up and bombed.”

“It is sickening that you have caved to the cultural Marxist, anti-science tranny [sic] agenda and altered the definition of ‘female’ as part of the Left’s efforts to corrupt and degrade the English language and deny reality,” Mr Hanson wrote, according to the criminal complaint. “You evil Marxists should all be killed. It would be poetic justice to have someone storm your offices and shoot up the place, leaving none of you commies alive.”

The messages forced the company to close its offices in Springfield, Massachusetts and New York City for approximately five business days, according to prosecutors.

US attorneys said the investigation also “identified numerous related threats” to the American Civil Liberties Union, the toy company Hasbro Inc, butter producer Land O’Lakes, university professors and a rabbi in New York City, among others.

Mr Hanson was arrested on 20 April. He faces one count of interstate communication of threats to commit violence, which could include a five-year prison sentence and fine of $250,000, if convicted.

He is set to appear in federal court in California on 29 April.

“Hate-filled threats and intimidations have no place in our society,” US attorney Rachael S Rollins said in a statement. “We believe Hanson sent a multitude of anonymous threatening and despicable messages related to the LGBTQ community that were intended to evoke fear and division.”

The FBI’s Boston division special agent in charge Joseph R Bonavolonta said “everyone has a right to express their opinion, but repeatedly threatening to kill people, as has been alleged, takes it to a new level.”

“Threats to life are most certainly not protected speech and they cause real fear in victims,” he said.