Date: Tue, 8 Feb 1994 16:43:37 -0500
From: "David B. O'Donnell" <atropos@netlab.cis.brown.edu>
Subject: Sister Spirit Defense Committee

Originally posted by shadow@netcom.com (Moonshadow). Please respond ONLY to
that address.
     
For Immediate Release:  February 1, 1994
     
Contacts:       Sharon Fleming          (415) 661-7028 (San Francisco)
                Lucy Galindo            (916) 455-9509 (Sacramento)
                Lucie James             (707) 573-1142 (Santa Rosa)
     
                        **PRESS RELEASE**
     
Lesbians in Sacramento, Santa Rosa, and San Francisco have organized
the Sister Spirit Defense Committee to raise money and send supporters
to Ovett, Mississippi, where Brenda and Wanda Henson are under attack
for being Lesbians.
     
The Hensons produce the Gulf Coast Women's Music Festival, run a food
bank and a literacy program, and are currently building "Camp Sister
Spirit," a feminist educational and cultural center.  In the last
several months, these Lesbians have been under attack by the local
residents of Ovett, Mississippi where the camp is located.  Several
violent and threatening incidents have been reported by the Hensons
including discovering a dead female dog shot in the stomach hanging
on their mailbox, and death threats and bomb threats received through
the mail, called into local radio stations, and by telephone.  Nightly
gun shots across their land and anti-lesbian notes left at their mailbox
have also been reported.
     
These incidents have been publicized by the women's appearance on the
"Oprah Winfrey Show" and ABC's "20/20" news program.
     
The local townspeople of Ovett, Mississippi, have met twice to discuss
ways to run the Hensons out of Ovett, stating fears that the Hensons
would recruit girls and women to lesbianism.  Public officials are
researching the state anti-sodomy laws.  The local sheriff has attended
these meetings and was seen raising money for "The Concerned Citizens
of Ovett."
     
"These women are under attack because they are Lesbians," declared
Alison Gude, a Sister Spirit Defense Committee organizer.  "We call
on all Lesbians and Gay men to support these women with their bodies
or their wallets.  An attack on one of us is an attack on all.
     
The Sister Spirit Defense Committee is working on several fundraisers
in Northern California and is looking for women and men who can go to
Mississippi to protect the Henson's land.
     
For more information about upcoming events and how to support these
women, please call:
     
       Sharon Fleming          (415) 661-7028 (San Francisco)
       Lucy Galindo            (916) 455-9509 (Sacramento)
       Lucie James             (707) 573-1142 (Santa Rosa)
     
                                End
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                                              |
"When a woman seriously asks herself what it  | <shadow@netcom.com>
 means to be a woman she is pulling at a      | <ckruger@igc.apc.org>
 thread that can unravel an entire culture."  |
                                              |
          Kim Chernin - "Reinventing Eve"     |
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