From ngltfexec@aol.com Wed Dec  8 14:01:31 1993
Date: Wed, 08 Dec 93 14:00:03 EST
From: ngltfexec@aol.com
To: qrd@vector.intercon.com
Subject: Letter to AG Reno

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
contact Robin Kane (202) 332-6483 ext. 3311
or David M. Smith 202) 332-6483 ext. 3309 pager (800)  757-7736

[Text of a letter from Peri Jude Radecic, Executive Director, National Gay
and Lesbian Task Force, to United States Attorney General Janet Reno.]
----
December 7, 1993

The Honorable Janet Reno
U.S. Attorney General
Department of Justice

VIA FAX: 202-514-4371

Dear Attorney General Reno,

I am writing to request your immediate assistance in ending a violent
situation in Ovett, Mississippi between some members of the community and two
lesbians who own land in Jones County and run a feminist educational center.
The women's lives are in danger.

On December 6, 250 people attended a meeting at the Ovett Community Center to
condemn the two women, Brenda and Wanda Henson, because the women are
lesbians. At the meeting, residents discussed ways to force the women and
Camp Sister Spirit to leave the land. Private citizens and public officials
(including the attorney for the Board of Supervisors in neighboring  Perry
County) vowed to research state and county laws, including the state
anti-sodomy law, to discover means to force the women to leave the area. The
women did not attend the meeting because they fear for their safety. A second
community meeting is scheduled for January 4, 1994. 

This meeting follows nearly two months of harassment, intimidation and
violence directed at the women. The women receive constant harassing and
threatening phone calls; a school bus filled with children drove by and
shouted "faggots" at the women following media attention about the existence
of the feminist camp; a dead dog was hung from their mailbox; the mailbox has
also been shot at and stuffed with sanitary napkins; and several unknown men
(some of them armed) have been found wandering on the 120 acres of Camp
Sister Spirit. 

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force asks that you and the Department of
Justice move immediately to support the lesbians' right to purchase property
and live free of violence and harassment. Any delay by the Department of
Justice in intervening in this explosive situation could result in harm to
the two women.

We request the following actions of you and divisions of the Department of
Justice:

--The Community Relations Service should perform mediation in the community
to immediately alleviate the potential for violence. 
--The Federal Bureau of Investigations should monitor the on-going situation.

--The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division should investigate the
attempts to violate the civil rights of the Hensons. 
--A representative of the Attorney General's office should attend the January
4 Ovett community meeting.

Finally, we request that you meet with us and one of the women from Camp
Sister Spirit in order to work together to alleviate the violent situation
and to insure that these women may live free of violence in their community.

I look forward to your immediate attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Peri Jude Radecic
Executive Director

cc:
Jeffrey Weiss, acting director of the Community Relations Service
Louis Freeh, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations
James P. Turner, acting director of the Department of Justice, Civil Rights
Division