Threats To Merriam-Webster Land Rossmoor Man In Prison For Year

ROSSMOOR, CA — A 35-year-old Orange County man was sentenced to a year in prison Thursday, after he apparently made anti-LGBTQ threats against dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster over the dictionary's updated gender definitions.

Along with the year-long sentence, a federal court in Massachusetts also ordered Rossmoor resident Jeremy Hanson to 30 days of home confinement, three years of probation and mental health treatment.

Hanson pleaded guilty last year to interstate transmission of threatening communications in connection with threats made to the Springfield, Massachusetts-based dictionary publisher and to the president of the University of North Texas, a Department of Justice news release said.

According to court documents, prosecutors said Hanson 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."

Hanson directed other communications at the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, Land O' Lakes Inc., Hasbro, a nonbinary rabbi and others, prosecutors said.

The SoCal resident was convicted of sending Merriam-Webster threatening messages and comments between Oct. 2 and Oct. 8 2021 through the website's "contact us" function in a remote hearing.

He commented on word entries such as "girl," "woman" and "female," according to a Department of Justice news release.

“It is absolutely sickening that Merriam-Webster now tells blatant lies and promotes anti-science propaganda,” Hanson wrote, according to prosecutors. “There is no such thing as ‘gender identity.’ The imbecile who wrote this entry should be hunted down and shot.”

Twice he threatened to shoot and bomb company headquarters, prompting Merriam-Webster to close offices in Springfield and New York City for several days, prosecutors said.

Hanson also wrote an email to the president of the University of North Texas in 2022 that said “You ought to be shot in the head and have your offices set on fire,” for supporting transgender students, prosecutors said.

Hanson, who appeared at the hearing remotely from a California jail, declined to address the court when given the opportunity.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.