Reno Sends Mediators Into Anti-Gay Case

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno has ordered Justice Department mediators into their first case involving anti-gay harassment and threats, sending them to a tiny south Mississippi town where residents led by Baptist ministers are trying to close a feminist camp run by two lesbians.

Two mediators from the department’s Community Relations Service arrived Friday in Ovett, Miss.--population 400--after Reno wrote a gay-rights group: “I consider the threat of violence in Ovett to be real.”

Reno’s order is the latest sign of the Clinton Administration’s sensitivity to gay issues. Earlier in the week, President Clinton wrote a letter opposing state and local referendums designed to block gay civil rights.

Last year, the Senate for the first time confirmed an openly gay official, Roberta Achtenberg, Clinton’s nominee for a housing post. But Clinton angered as many gays as he pleased by watering down his plan to end the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military.

Last month, Reno ordered the FBI to investigate after Wanda Henson, 39, and Brenda Henson, 48, who set up Camp Sister Spirit on a 120-acre former pig farm outside Ovett, received a handwritten threat in the mail. Mailing such a threat could be a federal offense. They have also received telephoned threats and have locked the camp entrance.

The couple, who consider themselves married, have about 20 women in residence helping rebuild the farm. They say they want to hold workshops on sexual harassment, sexual abuse and women’s legal rights.

“The situation in Ovett has clearly been dangerous since the time a dead dog was hung on the Hensons’ mailbox and town meetings were held denouncing the women and pledging to drive them from town,” said Peri Jude Radecic, director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which sought Reno’s help in December.

Last month, 350 people gathered in nearby Ellisville at a meeting organized by the Rev. John Allen, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Richton, who said: “We are being invaded by activists with a radical agenda . . . people who are different and want to change our community.” Donations were collected for a lawsuit aimed at closing the camp.