The Women’s and Gender Studies Minor Program held an event called “Taking a Stand for the Right to Life: When the Law as Fiction is Obviously Limited”.

The event was originally supposed to be a discussion on suicide bombing, euthanasia, mass murder and mass suicide, but as Dr. Joseph Fees, Visiting Professor of Spanish told The Hornet Newspaper, “Dr. [Kylie] Parrotta and I decided to change it based on the discussion in the last forum.”

The forum Dr. Fees is referring to was the October 22^nd panel discussion “Surviving Violence in Relationships: Sex and Gender.”

As the host of the event Dr. Myrna Nurse, Assistant professor of English put it, the discussion was “too vague”.

Dr. Myrna Nurse (Photo: Jasmine Saunders)

Last Tuesday night’s discussion instead was about the student movements, race and gender and sexual orientation on college campuses. Panelists for this discussion were Dr. Parrotta, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice, and Dr. Fees.

There was a significant turnout and there were lively debates on how issues of race, gender and sexual identity. Dr. Parrotta and Dr. Fees made their intentions known from the beginning that they wanted to have an “informal discussion” about these topics so that students will feel safe and secure about sharing their thoughts and feelings.

Dr. Fees spoke to The Hornet Newspaper that night, “It is very beneficial for students to have an environment outside of the classroom setting to express their opinions.”

Current students weren’t the only ones to make it to the discussion. Former DSU student Madeline Porter (B.A., 2012), an open bisexual was happy about the event.

Madeline Porter, DSU Grad Student (Photo: Jasmine Saunders)

Porter also said that discussions like these weren’t happening too openly or abundantly. The Women’s and Gender Studies Minor is a relatively new addition to DSU.