Making fun of someone's sexuality in a magazine subscription

Question

What kind of crime is it considered to fill out a magazine subscription for someone else giving them a provocative false name? Addressing it to someone who is very annoying, and happen to be gay. They received the magazine addressed to an insulting fictitious name and the police found out who sent it. Now the receiver wants to press charges for discrimination and harassment.

Answer 1

Merely sending someone a subscription to a magazine in an inaccurate name isn't inherently a crime. It would typically require a showing of a larger course of conduct amounting to harassment, and an intent to harass.

Discrimination charges would normally require a showing that someone has power to make decisions concerning the recipient, which wouldn't usually be the case and which even if it was the case, would typically be grounds of a lawsuit against the person discriminating, but not a crime.

As a comment notes, harassing someone through the mail is a crime in the United States, although a single inaccurately named subscription would often not, by itself suffice to prove harassment. The line between a legal joke in bad taste, and criminal harassment, can sometimes be subtle and may turn on the intent of the person engaging in the conduct.