"You're a faggot & a traitor to Mississippi. I would not mind if you deep throated a revolver and repainted the wall with your own brains, but you probably oppose the 2nd amendment in addition to The Mississippi State Flag."

Welcome to the inbox of a gay Mississippi journalist.

I do love my state too much to let it stay stuck in the past—and definitely too much to let creatures like this person have more power & say over our state's government than the 38% of this state that is Black, or the LGBT people of this state... 2/ https://twitter.com/ashtonpittman/status/1328020067636965376?s=20

To his points:

1. I don't oppose the 2nd Amendment (only the fairytale version of it that enables our culture of mass murder); I have a gun. Haven't shot one in years, but I have really good aim.

2. I think our new official MS state flag is beautiful! https://twitter.com/ashtonpittman/status/1328020067636965376?s=20

I have thick skin. I don't feel like I'm in danger. This isn't something I've never seen in my inbox before. It has become more common since Trump became president, though, and began telling anyone who would listen that the press is "the enemy of the people." It is what it is.

And so you know how brave this person is, they sent this from a Proton Mail address, using a Switzerland-based service that prevents me from being able to look in the email headers and see information about where the email came from. No way to trace them at all.

I guess the lesson here is that I haven't spent enough time listening to what this guy has to say so I can understand him & why he wants me to kill myself.

I should interview him & write a story about the real root for his hate for me: economic anxiety. https://twitter.com/ashtonpittman/status/1328020067636965376?s=20

Hi @IvankaTrump, this thread and the email I received may interest you, since I know you are very concerned with threats of violence in this country. https://twitter.com/IvankaTrump/status/1327964915752169473?s=20

Thank you all for your kind words of support, DMs, tweets, emails. Know I read and appreciate it even if I haven't yet responded to each of you individually.