Editing Stephen Donaldson (activist) (section)

==Childhood and adolescence (1946–1965)==
The son of a career naval officer, Donaldson spent his early childhood in different seaport cities in the eastern United States and in Germany.<ref name=moske>{{cite web |title=Stephen Donaldson Papers, 1965–1996 |last=Moske |first=Jim |pages=4–5 |date=September 2000 |website=The [[New York Public Library]] Humanities and Social Sciences Library Manuscripts and Archives Division |url=http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/rbk/faids/donaldson.pdf |access-date=2008-03-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512013008/http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/rbk/faids/donaldson.pdf |archive-date=May 12, 2008 }}</ref> Donaldson later described his father Robert, the son of Italian and German immigrants, as a man who "frowned on display of emotion" and his mother Lois as "an English, Scottish Texan, artistic, free-spirited, emotional, impulsive."<ref name=eisenbach>{{cite book
 | first=David
 | last=Eisenbach
 | author-link=David Eisenbach
 | title=Gay Power: An American Revolution
 | publisher=Carroll & Graf
 | location=New York, New York
 | year=2006
 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/gaypoweramerican00eise/page/51 51–79,260–262]
 | isbn=0-7867-1633-9
 | url=https://archive.org/details/gaypoweramerican00eise/page/51
 }}</ref> After his parents' divorce in 1953, when he was seven years old, Donaldson's mother suffered from acute porphyria (a rare genetic disease), and his father gained custody of Robert and his two brothers. His father remarried several years later. {{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

At age 12, Donaldson was expelled from [[Boy Scouts of America|Boy Scouts]] for engaging in [[Fellatio|sexual behavior]] with other boys (who, as recipients, were not punished).<ref name=donaldson>{{Cite book | last = Donaldson | first = Stephen | year = 1995 | contribution = The Bisexual Movement's Beginnings in the 70s: A Personal Retrospective | pages = [https://archive.org/details/bisexualpolitics00tuck/page/31 31–45] | editor-last = Tucker | editor-first = Naomi | title = Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, & Visions | place = New York | publisher = Harrington Park Press | isbn = 1-56023-869-0 | url = https://archive.org/details/bisexualpolitics00tuck/page/31 }}</ref> "The disgrace triggered a family crisis, resolved by sending the boy to live in Germany, where he could be watched over by his stepmother's relatives."<ref name=dynes>{{Cite book
 | last = Dynes
 | first = Wayne R.
 | year = 2002
 | contribution = Stephen Donaldson (Robert A. Martin) (1946–1996)
 | editor-last = Bullough
 | editor-first = Vern L.
 | editor-link = Vern Bullough
 | title = Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context
 | place = New York
 | publisher = The Haworth Press
 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781560231936/page/265 265–272]
 | isbn = 1-56023-193-9
 | url = https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781560231936/page/265
 }}</ref> He attended a boys boarding school and continued homosexual activity, hiding it from adults.<ref name=donaldson />

In April 1962, at the age of fifteen, Donny returned to the United States to live with his grandparents in [[West Long Branch|West Long Branch, New Jersey]]. In high school he was the news editor of the school paper, an actor, and a student government officer. He achieved a perfect score on the SAT and graduated as valedictorian. He also became active in politics as a [[Libertarian Conservative|libertarian conservative]], supporting [[Barry Goldwater]] for president"<ref name=dynes /> and "considered joining the [[Young Americans for Freedom]] but was so uptight that he first checked with [[J. Edgar Hoover]] by letter to inquire whether the YAF was "a communist organization, communist subverted, or in danger of becoming either". Hoover sent back a reply ''"praising his concern about communism and then opened an FBI file on the boy"''.<ref name=eisenbach /> (Years later, Donaldson received a copy of his FBI file through the [[Freedom of Information legislation|Freedom of Information Act]].)<ref name=moske />

Donaldson later wrote about his developing sexual identity:
{{blockquote|At 18, however, I fell in love with a baseball teammate, and my casual sexual play with boys was transformed into a very serious matter which could dominate my whole life. I talked with a few trusted adults about it, and learned that if I loved another boy I had to be a "[[Homosexuality|homosexual]]".... I could only find two books on the subject, which confirmed this label, and mentioned the [[Mattachine Society]] in New York as an organization of "homosexuals."  So on a school expedition to the "wicked city," I slipped away, visited their office, and became a member (swearing I was 21, since Mattachine was deathly afraid of dealing with minors), thus giving my new identity official status.<ref name=donaldson />}}

In 1965, Donaldson went to Florida to spend the summer with his mother. "When Lois discovered young Robert was having an affair with a Cuban man, she decided to punish her son by outing him in letters to her ex-husband and to [[Columbia University]], which Donaldson had planned to attend in the fall."<ref name=eisenbach /> Donaldson moved to New York, where, he later wrote, "The gays of New York welcomed me enthusiastically, offered hospitality, and 'brought me out' as a '[[Butch and femme|butch]]' homosexual (in contrast to the "queens").<ref name=donaldson /> Among the Mattachine Society members he met were [[Frank Kameny]] and [[Dick Leitsch]].<ref name=eisenbach />