An image of a gallows and the text "Your time is coming, you damn traitor". That's what a man wrote in June 2023 in a Twitter post. It was a response to an image where Jönsson was dressed and made up as a drag queen, a post in the debate about drag show artists reading fairy tales to children at the library.
Uddevalla District Court convicts the man of unlawful threats and considers it an aggravating circumstance that he had the intention to "insult due to transgender identity or expression".
Jan Jönsson is glad that the threats are being taken seriously by the judicial system, as it has major consequences in everyday life for those affected. For him, it has meant, among other things, demands for increased vigilance, where he, for example, never sits down in the subway.
I feel that I must be able to get off quickly if I experience something unpleasant. You live with that all the time.
Hatt's resignation
The debate about hate and threats against politicians gained momentum after Center Party leader Anna-Karin Hatt announced in October that she is resigning due to threats and hate.
One can probably not exaggerate the serious importance of this. If it continues, we will not have any democracy left, says Jönsson.
Hatt had not made any police reports, unlike Jan Jönsson, who reports everything that could be criminal. One reason is that he wants to set a good example.
If we don't dare to report to the police, why should the public do it then? The other part for me is about standing up for drag artists and other cultural workers at libraries who are exposed in various ways.
Reports everything
Many of them have told Jönsson that they don't have the energy to report themselves. Many politicians also tell Jönsson that they think it's hard to talk about the issue publicly because you can be "perceived as weak".
I think the opposite, we need to bring this to the surface.
He thinks, above all, that elected officials must consider how the tone in politics affects the public - and that one shows the same respect for each other in public as one does in the daily work.
