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
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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

