Threatening to ‘bomb’ Merriam-Webster offices over gender definitions: A California man pleaded guilty last week to threatening to “blow up and bomb” Merriam-headquarters Webster’s over gender-inclusive definitions and other people and organizations, federal officials said.
According to a statement released on Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, Jeremy David Hanson, 34. Admitted to threatening Merriam-Webster, the president of the University of North Texas.
The Walt Disney Company, the governor of California, the mayor of New York City, a rabbi, and professors at Loyola Marymount University in California.
Prosecutors stated Hanson “frequently targeted his threatening texts based on gender, gender identity, and/or sexual orientation”
Hanson was convicted of two charges of interstate transmission of threatening letters to commit violence for threatening Merriam-Webster and UNT’s president.
The Attorney’s Office said he might spend up to five years in jail and pay a $250,000 fine. A federal district court will decide his sentencing.
Over a few days in October, Hanson threatened Merriam-Webster with several messages.
He remarked, “There is no such thing as ‘gender identity,'” under the handle “@anonYmous.” According to the notice, on the website’s definition of “female,” the idiot who created this entry “should track down and shot.”
After six days, Hanson wrote on the Merriam-Webster website’s “Contact Us” page. “I am going to shoot up and destroy your offices for lying and making false definitions… Girls are not boys, and boys are not girls.
I’ll kill your top editor,” the attorney’s office reportedly said. In addition, the office stated that the firm closed its locations in Springfield, Massachusetts. And New York City for five working days due to the threat.
Recent years, Merriam-Webster has changed its definitions to include terminology related to gender identities. In 2019, “they” formed as a nonbinary, singular pronoun.
After confessing to making hate-motivated threats of violence against the LGBTQ+ community, Jeremy Hanson is now a convicted criminal. According to a statement made on Wednesday by special FBI agent Joseph Bonavolonta in Boston.
“We urge you to report it to the FBI if you feel you are a victim or a witness to similar activity. So we can bring those responsible for these crimes accountable, as we did in this instance,” the statement reads.
