A San Antonio-area man has pleaded guilty to threatening the life of a Boston doctor who treats gender-nonconforming youth, according to federal authorities.
Matthew Jordan Lindner entered a plea deal Wednesday in a Boston federal court, admitting to one count of interstate transmission of threatening communication, court records show. Lindner, 39, resides in Comfort, roughly 45 miles northwest of the Alamo City.
Authorities arrested Lindner last December, and he was subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston, according to an online statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts.
Federal prosecutors said Lindner threatened the physician amid “social media vitriol directed at health care providers who serve transgender patients.” Those angry messages followed the spread of false online claims about procedures that Boston Children’s Hospital was offering to transgender minors, they added.
Lindner called Boston’s National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center and left a threatening voicemail targeting a physician affiliated with the center, prosecutors said.
“You sick motherf*****s, you’re all gonna burn. There’s a group of people on their way to handle [victim],” the message said, according to a transcript provided by the feds. “You signed your own warrant, lady. Castrating our children. You’ve woken up enough people. And upset enough of us. And you signed your own ticket. Sleep well, you f****** c***.”
After leaving the message, Lindner continued to try to contact the physician, phoning their medical practice and a university where they serve as a faculty member, prosecutors also said.
“There is no way to undo the damage Matthew Lindner did to this physician, with his hateful, repulsive, and threatening behavior,” said Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division, in a written statement. “No one should have to live in fear of violence because of who they are, what kind of work they do, or what they believe.”
Lindner faces up to five years in prison, but as part of his plea agreement, federal authorities agreed to recommend a sentence of three months, records show.
A rise in threats against medical providers working with trans youth has coincided with states banning minors from obtaining gender-affirming care. Texas’ Republican-controlled legislature passed such a law earlier this year, becoming one of at least 20 states that bans or will soon ban forms of healthcare for trans youth.
LGBTQ+ advocates and medical professionals have repeatedly called out lawmakers who pushed for the Texas ban for deliberately misrepresenting the nature of care doctors provide to gender-nonconforming kids.
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This article appears in Dec 13-26, 2023.
