First we have anti-LGBTQ book banning. Now, we’ve got someone trying to ban the words themselves.
Last week, 32-year-old California resident Jeremy David Hanson was arrested for threatening to commit violent acts against employees at the Springfield, Massachusetts–based Merriam-Webster Inc., including bombing their headquarters, over M-W’s dictionary definition of words including “boy,” “girl” and “trans woman.”
Hanson is scheduled to appear before the US District Court in Springfield on Friday, April 29, reports the Boston Globe, which goes on to say:
Hanson allegedly sent Merriam-Webster various threatening messages and comments between Oct. 2 and Oct. 8, 2021 through its website’s “Contact Us” page and in the comments section on its web pages that corresponded to the word entries for “Girl” and “Woman,” prosecutors said.
The statements demonstrated “bias against specific gender identities,” according to the statement.
The alleged posts included one from Oct. 2, 2021, in which Hanson used the handle “@anonYmous” to post a comment on Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary’s definition of “female.”
“It is absolutely sickening that Merriam-Webster now tells blatant lies and promotes anti-science propaganda,” the comment said.
He also allegedly sent a threatening message via the website’s “Contact Us” page, prosecutors said.
“You [sic] headquarters should be shot up and bombed,” the message said. “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.”
The threats prompted Merriam-Webster to close its officers in Springfield and New York City for five business days, the statement said.
Merriam-Webster also wasn’t the only company Hanson allegedly targeted, prosecutors said.
“The investigation identified numerous related threats, including to the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, Land O’ Lakes, Hasbro, Inc., IGN Entertainment, the President of the University of North Texas, two professors at Loyola Marymount University and a New York City rabbi,” prosecutors said.
Read the complete Boston Globe article here.
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