California Man Sentenced for Anti-LGBTQ+ Death Threats to Merriam-Webster

A man who threatened dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster, Inc. because of its revised definitions relating to gender was sentenced to a year in prison on Thursday.

Jeremy Hanson, a 35-year-old from California, pled guilty last year to interstate transmission in connection with the threats to the venerable dictionary publisher as well as threatening the president of the University of North Texas.

The trial was held in a Massachusetts federal court, the state where Merriam-Webster is headquartered, and Hanson’s sentence also included three years of probation and mental health treatment.

Prosecutors said the man had a history of making “threatening communications, nearly all of which were motivated by ... biases based upon race, gender, gender identity, and/or sexual orientation,” according to the Associated Press.

Hanson admitted to sending threats to various corporations, politicians, and others in a written statement of facts included in his plea agreement. Some of his targets included the Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, the Mayor of New York City, and a nonbinary New York rabbi and Loyola Marymount University professors. He also targeted Disney, court records state.

Hanson's defense attorney, Marissa Elkins, asked the judge to show leniency and sentence Hanson to time already served. She referenced her client's history of emotional and behavioral challenges.

Prosecutors had asked for 18 months in prison. Partly, according to the AP, due to rising violent rhetoric across the country.

Judge Mark Mastroianni acknowledged Hanson's medical issues and added that Hanson didn't intend to go through with his threats. However, he called the threats, "disturbing and terrifying."

The judge also said that the dictionary publisher was “fearful that Hanson would come to their office and cause harm.”

Hanson submitted his threats to Merriam-Webster through the "Contact Us" page on the company website as well as the comments section on its websites under the word entries for "Girl" and "Woman," according to a news release from last year.

On the "Contact Us" page, Hanson wrote, "[Your] headquarters should be shot up and bombed. It is sickening that you have caved to the cultural Marxist, anti-science tranny agenda and altered the definition of 'female' as part of the Left's efforts to corrupt and degrade the English language and deny reality. 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."