The LGBT office cancelled its movie night Thursday evening after discovering licensing requirements, but the group said its plans to reschedule.

“This was discovered just in recent days,” said associate vice president of Intercultural Affairs Maurice Cooley regarding the licensing required for showing movies to the public.

LGBT office graduate assistant Katrina Dix said she wanted to play a series of movies that celebrate the African-American contribution to the LGBT community for Black History Month.

Cooley said when Dix and other students sent him fliers to promote the movie night, he responded with some questions of whether or not they could legally obtain movies and show them to students free of charge.

“I became curious whether there would be any legal ramifications for our desire to show movies for a public viewing,” Cooley said.

Cooley said he consulted the office’s legal counsel, attorney Jendonnae Houdyschell, even though he said he was not anticipating any issues.

“We have to have a license for public showing, according to our legal counsel,” Cooley said.

Cooley said he learned through Houdyschell that a public showing includes anything that is advertised to the public and shown to a large group apart from friends and family.

Because the LGBT office advertised the movie night, it was considered a public showing.

According to Dix there are two major licensing companies, Swank and Criterion. Dix said Swank holds the majority of licenses.

Cooley said Dix went through the process of calling Swankand the office received the potential for licensure, but Cooley did not approve the movie night because the office has not yet paid for the license.

Cooley said the licenses are $250 per movie for one public showing.

“We have certain money in our budget allocated for certain things,” Dix said. “Some of that money has to be moved around.”

The LGBT office had chosen three films to show in February, but none of them have been shown.

“It’s just unfortunate that there’s all of these hurdles,” Dix said.

“We have learned a good lesson,” Cooley said. “It is responsible behavior and that is what we intend to comply with.”

Cooley said the LGBT office intends to continue working through the licensing process and show movies for students in the future.

Lydia Waybright can be contacted at [email protected].