One Hundred and TwenTy Six yearS Of ediTOrial freedOm
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Ann Arbor, MI
Weekly Summer Edition
MichiganDaily.com
INDEX
NEWS ....................................
SUDOKU................................
OPINION ...............................
ARTS ......................................
CLASSIFIEDS.........................
SPORTS.................................
2
2
4
6
8
10
Vol. CXXVII, No. 81| © 2017 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com
NEWS
Diversity program
Big House program
encourages diverse appli-
cant pool.
>> SEE PAGE 8
OPINION
Being alone
“Solitude requires self-
confidence to enjoy...”
>> SEE PAGE 4
ARTS
‘Detroit,’ a tragic
historical tale
New film retells the story
of famous 1967 riot.
>> SEE PAGE 6
SPORTS
Soccer roster
Despite a 4-11-4 record
last season, young talent
abounds for Michigan.
>> SEE PAGE 11
inside
Michigan’s talented linebackers primed for breakout season
“They did not see us. We made sure they didn’t.”
McCray, the lone returning
defensive starter, taking on a
leadership role
By JACOB SHAMES
Summer Managing Sports Editor
Before last season, Mike McCray had
recorded just two tackles in his college
career and had never started a game for
the Michigan football team.
McCray, a former four-star recruit out
of high school, had always shown promise
— a blocked punt in a victory over Appala-
chian State in 2014 had displayed as much.
But McCray couldn’t stay on the field —
health problems, including a shoulder
injury that sidelined him for the entire
2015 season, derailed his first three years
in a Wolverine uniform.
With the graduation of three senior
linebackers — Joe Bolden, Desmond Mor-
gan and James Ross — a healthy McCray
finally got his chance last year and ran
with it. He made an immediate impact in
his first start, a season-opening victory
over Hawaii where he made nine tackles,
3.5 for loss and two sacks, to kick-start an
All-Big Ten Honorable Mention campaign
in which he totalled 76 stops, including
12.5 for a loss as well as 4.5 sacks and two
interceptions.
One year later, the fifth-year senior
linebacker is the only returning starter
from the previous season’s dominant
defense. But that’s not the only thing dif-
ferent about McCray, according to line-
backers coach Chris Partridge.
“There’s an aura about him that’s dif-
ferent than it was last year and that’s
important because guys will look up to
him,” Partridge said. “He’s a hard worker
and he’s tough, he’s a Big Ten linebacker.
Now with that aura about him and that
sense of leadership he’s stepped his game
up.”
To Partridge, McCray has carried him-
self in a different manner so far in fall
camp — a manner that is essential. The
omnipresent theme for Michigan — young
Transgender individuals continue the
struggle against possible military ban
and healthcare complications
By NISA KHAN and JENNIFER MEER
Summer Editor in Chief and Summer
Managing News Editor
This article is the first part of a larger piece
dedicated to the experiences of some transgender
individuals. The second part will be available on
michigandaily.com soon.
It was 1974; Charin Davenport was 18 when
she joined the military.
Despite opposing the Vietnam War, the
teenager from Essexville, Mich., had many
reasons for wanting to join the Navy. A need
to give back to the country was one; there was
also the desire to have more experiences out-
side of the town.
“I really wanted to see the world,” she said.
“And I did. Another part of it was I had to get
out of there. Because there was no future,
short-term or long-term for me there.”
She also thought that joining the military
would help her feel like more of the gender she
was assigned to.
“I thought at that age … the problem was that
I wasn’t a good enough man,” the now 61-year-
old Oakland University professor said. “And
that the Navy would help me become that man,
that would kind of man me up. And I talked to a
lot of veterans who felt the same way. Because
it’s kind of that hyper-masculine environment.
And so, in that environment, surely I would
become the man I was suppose to be and I so
far failed at.”
Davenport was in the military for seven
years. While she was not out in the military, she
was aware of several of her fellow officers who
were also trans.
“I was not out when I served,” she said.
“That would have been a death sentence. The
secrecy between ourselves was far beyond any
top-secret clearance the military could have
had. They did not know us. They did not see us.
We made sure they didn’t.”
The reception of returning Vietnam and
Korean soldiers was a national shame, Dav-
enport explained, since they were not treated
with respect. With all of the debate, the presi-
dents at the time would at least be on the side
of the troops.
“And then on that day, the President of the
United States Donald Trump spit on us,” she
said. “And said, ‘No no no you’re right, spit on
them.’ And to me, that is absolutely despicable.
And I was so angry. So hurt. And I will never
stop saying that. I’m angry. So angry about it.”
“I hate war, let me be very clear about that,”
she said. “But we can never lose that bond. We
cannot lose that bond. And Donald Trump, our
president that we elected in this country, basi-
cally told us to fuck off.”
“I will never feel any differently about what
he did,” she said. “Analyze all you want — there
is no analysis to be made. That’s what hap-
pened.”
The military ban
Davenport is one of the approximate
134,300 retired transgender veterans who
have served in the U.S. military — a num-
ber that is difficult to pinpoint as the ban
on transgender individuals was lifted just
last year under the Obama administration.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” the policy regarding
sexual orientation, was discontinued in 2011,
but repeal did not extend to gender identity
— transgender individuals were deemed to
have
a
See FOOTBALL, Page 11
See MILITARY, Page 3