A California man will serve a federal prison term for making threats to commit anti-LGBTQ+ violence against a dictionary publisher, a major entertainment company, a governor, a mayor, a university president, and others.
Jeremy David Hanson, 34, of Rossmoor, California, was sentenced in Boston to one year and one day in prison and three years of supervised release.
Hanson pleaded guilty last September to one count of interstate threatening communications to commit violence against the employees of Merriam-Webster, and to another count charging the same offense, initially filed in the Eastern District of Texas, targeting the president of the University of North Texas, in Denton.
As part of his plea agreement, Hanson also admitted sending threatening communications to various corporations, politicians, and others, including the Walt Disney Co., the governor of California, the mayor of New York City, a New York rabbi and professors at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
Many of the threatening communications specified the race, gender, gender identity and/or sexual orientation of various persons. Hanson persisted in his communications in spite of repeated interactions with law enforcement officers.
“Mr. Hanson made numerous, anonymous hate-fueled threats of violence to intimidate and instill fear. Hateful and bigoted acts, even if only spoken like those committed by Mr. Hanson, terrorize communities and are destructive to our society,” said U.S. Attorney Rachael S. Rollins. “Hate motivated acts of any kind will never be tolerated, and perpetrators – including those who think they can hide behind a keyboard – need to know we will find you and prosecute you.”
“Despite repeated interactions with law enforcement directing Jeremy Hanson to stop his hateful tirades threatening violence, he continued to make them. In doing so, his bias against the LGBTQ+ community instilled real fear and safety concerns, causing Merriam-Webster to close its offices for almost five days,” said Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division.
Between Oct. 2 and Oct. 8, 2021, Springfield-based Merriam-Webster Inc. received various threatening messages and comments demonstrating bias against specific gender identities submitted through its website’s “Contact Us” page and in the comments section on its webpages that corresponded to the word entries for “Girl” and “Woman.” Authorities later identified the user as Hanson.
Specifically, on Oct. 2, 2021, Hanson used the handle “@anonYmous” to post the following comment on the dictionary’s website definition of “female.” “It is absolutely sickening that Merriam-Webster now tells blatant lies and promotes anti-science propaganda. There is no such thing as ‘gender identity.’ The imbecile who wrote this entry should be hunted down and shot.”
On Oct. 8, 2021, Hanson posted another threatening comment on the dictionary’s website and a threatening message via the “Contact Us” page that read: “I am going to shoot up and bomb your offices for lying and creating fake definitions in order to pander to the tranny mafia. Boys aren’t girls, and girls aren’t boys. The only good Marxist is a dead Marxist. I will assassinate your top editor. You sickening, vile tranny freaks.” As a result of the threats, Merriam-Webster temporarily closed its offices in Springfield, Massachusetts, and New York City.
In addition, Hanson sent a threatening email on March 3, 2022, to the president of the University of North Texas. The title of the email read: “You ought to be shot in the head and have your offices set on fire for supporting child genital mutilation and transgenderism.”
The body of the email read: “YOU LEFTIST FREAKS are the intolerant ones. Trannies are disgusting PERVERTS. Every single tranny freak should be gassed, along with their supporters. I will personally go to your university and start executing tyrannical leftist students and faculty who oppress conservatives. The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.”