Leslie took questions and then ended the speech by addressing the Dr. Patricia Washington struggle. Many in the audience did not know what he was talking about nor who Pat Washington is or who she is struggling with. He said three things about her: 1) The case was receiving national attention, 2) that everyone should know about what is happening, and 3) that people should support her because a) it has a deeper impact than her single case and b) it's the right thing to do. Leslie told people to find out more by visiting http://www.patwashington.org.

This event was put on by the Women's Studies Department at SDSU, the LGBT student group, the Andrea O'Donnell Women's Resource Center, as well as several other groups. It was interesting that Leslie spoke about Dr. Washington because it puts the Women's Studies Department in a completely defensive position. Although Leslie did not mention the department by name when addressing the case, they were the ones who made the initial decision not to give tenure to Dr. Washington and it is this decision that she is struggling against.

After most of the audience had gone, a couple of women from the department began their defensive attack against what they felt was Leslie's attack on them. They basically told him how dare he bring this topic up and try to mar the women's studies department when he didn't know their side of the story. Rather than a prompt for dialogue they made an argument for why he should have censored himself. The department worked hard at the last minute (somehow this is supposed to be on Leslie's shoulders) to make sure that everything worked out for Leslie's talk. And then, he goes and supposedly does the opposite of what he had discussed about solidarity and unity by talking about Pat Washington. The message was that Leslie should have shut up and stayed in his place, a place where women's studies could do no wrong.

The bottom line is that Leslie--very politely and without attacking or labeling the department as racist or some other villainizing term--called the women's studies department on their shit and they didn't like it at all. Instead of discussing it, as Leslie was very open to doing, they attacked him. Rather than acknowledge the restraint Leslie showed by not even mentioning the dept's role and returning the same courtesy, they only continued with the wreckless banter that he should hear and accept their side with no room for discussion. The "oppressor" suddenly felt like it was their voice getting squashed, when in reality they were trying to censor Leslie Feinberg and his right to include the work he is currently doing, which does involve supporting Dr. Patricia Washington. For more info and ways to support Pat, please go to http://www.patwashington.org