Transgender Harvard Law School Instructor Swept Up in Terrorist Cyberthreats

Alejandra Caraballo, a transgender instructor at Harvard Law School, has ended up being cc'd on terroristic emails from multiple email addresses, some of them Russian, that target schools with bomb threats, The Daily Beast reported.

"Caraballo, who researches gender and technology, maintains a popular Twitter account where she documents anti-LGBT rhetoric and far-right extremism," the Daily Beast reported of the civil rights attorney and equality advocate.

"In December 2022 she shared a thread suggesting a connection between posts by Libs of TikTok and a series of bomb threats, like those against Boston Children's Hospital. She thinks this may be why the unknown hoaxer has been including her in the emails."

Whatever the reason, Caraballo "has been cc'd on at least 35 emails containing bomb threats since February of this year," the article detailed.

"These emails have shut down school districts, businesses and even whole neighborhoods while police search for non-existent bombs," the news item added.

Some of the messages threaten to bomb schools, claiming that children are being "indoctrinated," including schools in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, school system. Others take aim at drag events, Democratic public officials, or libraries. Caraballo was even included on the cc list of a terroristic email that threatened the life of trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

"Although the emails come from different addresses and take aim at targets across the country, Caraballo believes there is one person, or a small group, behind the bomb threats," the article noted. "Similar language is used in many of the emails, including the same spelling mistakes and phrases. And, of course, they are all being sent to her."

According to the Beast, the person or persons responsible have also targeted small businesses with supportive relationships to the LGBTQ+ community, including a business in Washington state that had scheduled a drag queen story time.

"I rather die than live in a country where its acceptable to allow pedophiles who dress up as women prey upon children," the article quoted from the email. "Your time will come up, we won't stop we will fucking kill all of you bastards and make our country great again."

The emailed threats brought police to the owner's home and business, both of which were searched for nonexistent bombs.

Another threat targeted a boutique in Peakskill, New York, run by a heterosexual couple with a young child and an infant. Members of their family were threatened by name with murder.

Caraballo sensibly decided to alert the FBI about the messages, the Daily Beast relayed. "Since April, she has been in contact with agents in the Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York, and has been forwarding all the emails she receives."

"Caraballo is frustrated that after four months of cooperation with the FBI, she is still receiving emails, and the threats are still shutting down schools, libraries and businesses all over the country," the Daily Beast reported. "The threats sometimes seem to correlate to news stories that are getting high levels of play in right-wing media, Caraballo says."