Camp Sister Spirit was a feminist and lesbian retreat in Ovett, Mississippi, United States. It was established in 1993 by Brenda and Wanda Henson, a lesbian couple from Mississippi. The camp became defunct in or sometime prior to 2021. It attracted national media attention shortly after its establishment due to intense opposition from the local community.
Prior to opening the camp, the Hensons operated a nonprofit organization called Sister Spirit Inc. of Gulfport, Mississippi, which provided assistance to victims of abuse, disbursed food to the needy and sought to address issues regarding domestic violence and racism. In the early 1990s, the group sought to purchase a property to be used for holding workshops and coordinating outreach efforts. In July 1993, they purchased a former pig farm in Ovett, a small community in Jones County, Mississippi.
Soon after the purchase of the property, the group faced community opposition, including from local Baptist pastors, who sought to remove the group from the community. Additionally, the property was subject to acts of vandalism, and the group members were harassed. In February 1994, United States Attorney General Janet Reno ordered federal mediators from the Community Relations Service to Ovett, though camp opponents refused to engage in mediation. Following this, camp opponents sued Reno, though their case was ultimately dismissed by a federal judge. Also in 1994, several neighbors of the camp filed a nuisance lawsuit against the organization, though they lost their case in the Mississippi Chancery Courts.
Ultimately, the camp survived community attempts to remove it and, by 2003, it had hosted 5,000 visitors from 12 different countries. However, by that time, Brenda had been diagnosed with cancer, which caused a decline in camp activities. Brenda died in 2008, and Wanda in 2025. By 2021, sources reported that the camp had closed.
Background Brenda and Wanda Henson were a lesbian couple who, in the early 1990s, considered themselves to be married. Around 1990, the two established Sister Spirit Inc. in Gulfport, Mississippi. This entity was a 501(c)(3) organization, a nonprofit organization that sought to address issues of civil rights and human rights, including domestic violence and racism. To this end, the organization assisted victims of abuse and, in 1993, distributed roughly of food to the needy. Some of the organizations funding was derived from grants provided by the federal government of the United States. All of the organization's workers were volunteers and consisted of both lesbian and straight women, with lesbians making up about 70 percent of its workforce. The Hensons worked full-time for the organization, with Brenda serving as its executive director. Additionally, Brenda published a newsletter for the organization called The Grapevine.
Formation In the early 1990s, Sister Spirit oversaw a four-year-long fundraising effort for the purchasing of land in Mississippi, with the goal being to use the property for holding workshops and meetings and for coordinating outreach efforts. Additionally, Sister Spirit intended to rent out the property to other similar groups and allow women passing through the area to use it as a campground. The group also wanted its own property due to issues that they experienced in the past with leasing property. The name of this retreat would be Camp Sister Spirit.
In July 1993, the organization purchased about of land in Ovett, Mississippi, a small municipality with a population of several hundred. Most of the population was Christian, with many practicing Christian fundamentalism. The property, which cost $60,000 (equivalent to $ in ), was formerly a pig farm. It was located in a wooded area, near the De Soto National Forest, and was connected to the road system by a logging road. At the time of the purchase, the property contained several barns and an old house. Its previous owner did not live on the property, but allowed nearby residents to use it as a hunting camp.
Work on preparing the site began in August 1993, with the Hensons living on the property with about 20 other women. The camp officially launched in late 1993. As part of their involvement with the local community, the Hensons stated that they intended to operate food banks and hold drives to promote literacy and preventive healthcare, among other things.
Community opposition The purchase was discussed in the October 1993 issue of The Grapevine, and while the newsletter was intended only for members of Sister Spirit, a local resident of Ovett obtained a copy. Soon after, the local media was made aware of the purchase and several thousand copies of the newsletter were distributed throughout the region, including at churches, factories, and grocery stores. Many citizens expressed outrage at the purchase and, in particular, a part of the newsletter that referenced the building of a "lesbian community". According to Brenda, this was a misunderstanding, as the group intended to have no more than five or six full-time caretakers live on the property. Discussing this in an article of The Advocate magazine, Brenda said:
The Hensons and their organization also faced opposition from religious leaders in the community, primarily from the pastors of local Baptist churches. One such pastor, John S. Allen from nearby Richton, Mississippi, said that he hoped that the Hensons would abandon their "lesbian lifestyle" and embrace a "biblical lifestyle" and that, if they did not, that the camp would be removed from the community. The opposition to the camp from Baptist leaders was supported by Representative Michael Parker, who represented Jones County, Mississippi, in the United States House of Representatives. Wanda responded to the local religious community by saying that her relationship with Brenda was honored by their religion—Unitarian Universalism—and that the "Fundamentalists" lacked the right to force their religious interpretation on them.
Vandalism and threats On November 8, 1993, the Hensons found that their mailbox on the property had been vandalized. A dead female puppy and several menstrual pads were on the box, which also bore bullet holes. The Hensons reported the event to the county sheriff's department, which filed a report. On November 10, the couple received the first of what would be many harassing phone calls. Other phone calls the couple received included someone threatening to bomb the property and another person warning them that the Ku Klux Klan would perform a cross burning there. However, these calls largely ceased after the couple appeared on a local television show the day after Thanksgiving and said that all phone calls made to them were being traced. However, the couple stated that they were still the target of other forms of harassment. This included having a note reading "LEAVE QUEERS NOW" left on their front porch and having a bus of schoolchildren yell "Hey, faggots" at them, with the bus driver cueing the students with his horn. Additionally, the couple reported seeing several men, including some who were armed, on their property. By December, Sheriff Maurice Hook said that he had increased patrols in the area, but had found nothing worthy of investigation.
On December 21, 1993, the Hensons appeared on an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss their situation with Oprah Winfrey. In addition to the Hensons, several critics, including The Reverend Allen, also appeared on the show. During the interview, Brenda described several instances of harassment she had experienced in Ovett, including an instance when she had been followed home by a driver who had attempted to run her off the road and a time when a local gravel provider was threatened with property destruction if he worked with the Hensons. That month, the couple would be interviewed by several other media programs, including 20/20, the BBC, Jerry Springer, and Larry King Live. By January 1994, the property was protected by guards and a locked gate. Additionally, the Hensons purchased a shotgun and a .30-30 Winchester rifle for self-defense. By the following month, the number of people who lived on the property was between 8 and 12. That month, it was reported that a bomb had exploded outside of the Hensons' gate. By October 1994, journalist Bettina Boxall of the Los Angeles Times reported that the Hensons had experienced 64 incidents of harassment since moving to Ovett.
Organized efforts to remove the camp On November 28, 1993, Ovett resident James Hendry wrote an article in the Hattiesburg American suggesting that the community should pool their resources and attempt to buy the Hensons' property. On December 6, about 250 Ovett area residents gathered for a meeting at the Ovett Community Center to discuss the camp. The Hensons, who did not attend due to concerns for their own safety, had previously written a letter to the meeting organizers requesting that it be canceled, though they received no response. At the meeting, several community members expressed outrage over the camp, with one person saying he feared that the lesbians at the camp would cause his unborn niece to become lesbian. In their coverage of the meeting, the Hattiesburg American quoted one resident, Clint Knight, as saying, "These people can pick up our little girls and take them to this place and do whatever they want to". Opponents to the camp called themselves the "Ovett Citizens Group", though they later changed their name to "Mississippi for Family Values".
At the meeting, the residents elected Paul Walley, an attorney from Richton, and Hendry to form a group that would find ways to force the Hensons to move. According to Walley, the residents of Ovett were largely Christians who were vehemently opposed to homosexuality and believed that Sister Spirit were aiming to recruit some women in the community into becoming lesbians. John Ellzy, a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, volunteered to research building codes and laws on cohabitation and sodomy to see if there was a legal avenue to remove the camp. Among other ways of removing the group, Walley proposed several options, including having the Jones County Board of Supervisors pass an ordinance against them or labeling them as a public nuisance, though he stated that the odds of these options succeeding were slim. A representative of the Mississippi branch of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF)), Gary Barlow, attended the meeting, but did not speak out of fear for his safety. Speaking later of the event, Barlow said, "I've never felt such intense hatred in my life. ... It's really hard to describe."
Another meeting of local residents was held on January 3, 1994, at the Jones County Courthouse in nearby Ellisville, Mississippi. At the meeting, which was attended by about 400 people, attendees donated $852 ($ in ) towards a legal campaign to stop the camp. Additionally, Walley said that he was still researching law in order to see if there was a way to legally force the Hensons to leave. Walley also expressed hope that the Supreme Court of the United States could issue a ruling that would allow communities to bar homosexual activities in the same way that they could ban the consumption of alcohol or pornography. The meeting was attended by a representative of the NGLTF, who said that the group was trying to collect information that would convince the federal government to intervene in the matter. After the meeting, attendees harassed two men that the crowd thought were gay men, prompting the police to escort the men to safety.
Involvement of the Department of Justice