It’s clear the Republican Party has embraced a transphobic agenda, as laws targeting transgender kids, gender identity lesson plans and gender-affirming care proliferate across the country.
Critics of this bigoted movement have warned that right-wing rhetoric condemning trans people invites violence, and the Department of Justice last week offered a glaring example of it.
In a statement Friday, the DOJ said officials arrested a California man in connection with making threats against Merriam-Webster Inc., a publishing company best known for its dictionaries, over the way it defines the words “female,” “girl” and “woman.”
The man — 34-year-old Jeremy David Hanson — sent multiple threatening messages through Merriam-Webster’s website, according to the DOJ. One of the alleged messages expressed anger over Merriam-Webster’s definition of “female.” The company defines the word in several ways, including as “a gender identity that is the opposite of male.”
“There is no such thing as ‘gender identity,’” Hanson allegedly wrote. “The imbecile who wrote this entry should be hunted down and shot.”








