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SERVING THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN COMMUNITY SINCE 1900 @THEDAILYTEXAN | THEDAILYTEXAN.COM
FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2018
VOLUME 118, ISSUE 149
N E WS
O PI N I O N
S CI E NCE &TE CH
S P ORTS
LIFE&ARTS
Panelists discuss how to prevent sexual assault against people with disabilities. PAGE 2
Explore movies outside your comfort zone and Netflix picks. PAGE 4
Despite delays, UT astronomers await the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. PAGE 5
Longhorn women’s golf team lights UT Tower for second consecutive Big 12 title. PAGE 7
It’s 27 heroes versus 1 Mad Titan in the epic “Avengers: Infinity War.” PAGE 8
UNIVERSITY
UHS plans to offer hormone therapy, LGBTQ students react
PROJECT
Black UT creatives start their own production company:
Black Futon Films
By Katie Balevic @katelynbalevic
Editor’s Note: Some last names have been omitted out of respect for the privacy and safety of our sources. This fall, University Health Services will begin providing hormone replacement therapy, a service the LGBTQ community has long been pushing for. While the service will initially only be available for patients already on HRT, UHS doctors hope providing hormone therapy will help them better serve their patients, said Melinda McMichael, interim chief medical officer at UHS. “We want to make sure that when we do this, we do it correctly and that we provide the high quality services that we’re proud of providing to our students,” McMichael said. “We just want to do it right.” HRT — the practice of using testosterone or estrogen hormones to alter one’s outward appearance to better match one’s gender identity — is a common step taken by transgender people to affirm their identity. While hormones can be prescribed by primary care physicians, they have not previously been available at UHS, a primary care clinic. “Honestly there aren’t a lot of training programs for … physicians and other providers to learn how to do this,” McMichael said. “There’s a little bit of a learning curve.” While McMichael said UHS doctors have attended conferences and hosted focus groups on how to properly
UHS page 2
CITY
New guidelines ‘scoot’ onto UT following trendy transportation By Sami Sparber @samisparber
As city officials discuss how to manage the recent influx of dockless electric scooters in Austin, both UT and the Texas State Preservation Board have taken steps to enforce regulations regarding scooter parking and operation. Last week, both Bird Rides Inc. and LimeBike, the companies which brought scooters to Austin, updated their apps to reflect SPB rules restricting scooter use on State Capitol grounds and at the Bullock Texas State History Museum. “Under the state’s administrative rules … the SPB has had to consider several factors,” said Chris Currens, SPB director of special projects, in a statement. “First, the safety of the public. With well over a million visitors to our properties each year including numerous school groups, the high volume of pedestrian traffic on the grounds makes any potential tripping hazard or collision possibility a high concern — especially once the dockless bike share programs scale up to thousands of units.” Currens also cited a provision saying properties maintained by the board “shall not be used for the commercial benefit of any individual, business, corporation, special interest group or other entity.” Bird added “No Ride Zone” designations for the State Capitol grounds and
SCOOTER page 3
all photos courtesy of black futon films, and reproduced with permission Stills from the filming of “Other Black Boys.”
Editor’s Note: This is The Daily Texan’s ninth installment of The 5% Project in collaboration with the UT-Austin chapter of National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). By Jordan Walter, Faith Castle, Brianna Stone @issajordski, @faithcastle21, @bristone19
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t was July of last summer when acting senior Nyles Washington was staying on his friend’s couch in between apartment leases. On that couch, he wrote the short film that would later lead to the creation of a film production company with three other UT students. Black Futon Films is a production company founded in September by Washington, acting senior Elias Weinberg, acting senior Rama Tchuente and American studies junior Alexis Roberts. Their first project, “Other Black Boys,” is a short film featuring a majority black cast and exploring topics of sexuality, race and other intersections of identity. “The production company is dedicated to giving voices to the voiceless and showing alternative stories,” Washington said. “That’s where ‘Other Black Boys’ came from because I personally consider myself an alternative black kid. The film is about a sexually fluid man just trying to figure life out.” Washington said the film is currently in the editing stage and will be finished by July. After submitting the short film to festivals, he said he hopes to later hold a screening of the film on campus. “Eventually we want to make ‘Other Black Boys’ into a feature length film, which I’m currently writing the script for,” Washington said. “We hope someone will see the short (film) and pick it up so we are able to make the feature.”
In addition to this first short film, Washington said the production company is working on a couple of other projects, including an animated series and a series about what it is like to be a black millennial in today’s age. “Black Futon Films will tell black stories in a different light,” Washington said. “You don’t really see people on screen talking about sexual fluidity, homophobia, transphobia and all of these different things.” The company also wanted to give women and people of color opportunities both in front of and behind the camera, Washington said, by hiring a cast and crew mostly composed of people of color and women. Washington said he hopes Black Futon Films can eventually be picked up by a network like Showtime or HBO, and he said he believes they will be working with the company for the next 20 years or so. For now, Washington is currently studying in Los Angeles through the UTLA program, which is exposing him to the film and entertainment industry. “It’s important that people appreciate what’s happening on screen and also everything happening outside of the cinema world,” Washington said. “A lot of stories are being told for people who don’t understand, and it’s never too late to understand. It’s never too late to tell your homeboys to chill out with the homophobia. It’s never too late to correct a person who says something messed up.” Roberts, who is one of the writers and editors for the production company, has been with Black Futon Films and working on “Other Black Boys” since the beginning. “We wanted to write stories about people like us,” Roberts said. “The people that don’t fit into categories
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