Editing Stephen Donaldson (activist) (section)

===Founding of Student Homophile League===

====Motivation====
In August 1965, Donaldson "had a social worker call the dean's office to ask whether Columbia would register a known homosexual." After a delay of two weeks, the administration responded that he "would be allowed to register, on condition that he undergo psychotherapy and not attempt to seduce other students."<ref name=eisenbach />

He entered [[Columbia University]] that fall and began using the pseudonym Stephen Donaldson so he could be open about his sexuality without embarrassing his father. They both were named Robert Martin, and his father taught mathematics at [[Rider College]] in New Jersey.<ref name=eisenbach/> The surname was based on the first name, "Donald", of the baseball teammate who was his first love.<ref name=dynes /> His first year of college was difficult: he met no other bisexual students or faculty and had to move from a shared suite to a single room when his suitemates "told the college dean [[David Truman]] that they felt uncomfortable living with a homosexual."<ref name=eisenbach /> Apparently ambivalent, they offered Donaldson "great apologies and said they realized they shouldn't feel" unwilling to live with him.<ref name=nytimes67>{{Cite news | first=Murray | last=Schumach | title= Columbia Charters Homosexual Group | date=1967-05-03 | periodical = [[The New York Times]] | pages =1, 40 }}</ref>

In the summer of 1966, Donaldson began a relationship with gay activist [[Frank Kameny]], who had a great influence on him. Donaldson later wrote:

{{blockquote|Frank gave me a complete education both in homosexuality and in the homophile movement, instructing me also in how to respond to attacks from psychiatry, religion, the law, etc., etc. He largely shaped my gay ideology and continued to influence me even after I split with him ideologically in '68–'69.<ref name=eisenbach />}}

In August, Kameny took Donaldson to [[Cherry Grove, New York|Cherry Grove]] on [[Fire Island]], where he "was thrilled to meet another gay Columbia student [James Millham] and to learn that Millham lived with his lover, a [[New York University]] student, in one of Columbia's dormitories."<ref name=eisenbach />

====Struggle with Columbia for charter====
That fall, Donaldson suggested to Millham "that they form a Mattachine-like organization on campus, what he envisioned as 'the first chapter of a spreading confederation of student [[homophile movement|homophile]] groups.'"<ref name=Beemyn2003>{{cite journal
 | last = Beemyn
 | first = Brett
 | year = 2003
 | title = The Silence Is Broken
 | journal = Journal of the History of Sexuality
 | volume = 12
 | pages = 205–223
 | url = https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_the_history_of_sexuality/v012/12.2beemyn.html
 | access-date = 2008-03-16
 | doi=10.1353/sex.2003.0075
| s2cid = 143126800
 }}</ref> At first, Donaldson was unable to gain official recognition for the [[Student Homophile League]] (SHL) (now called the [[Columbia Queer Alliance]]), as Columbia required a membership list. Donaldson and Millham were the only queer students willing to provide their names.<ref name=eisenbach /> This prevented the group from receiving university funding or holding public events on campus until Donaldson realized that by "recruiting the most prominent student leaders to become ''pro forma'' members, he could satisfy the administration without compromising the anonymity of gay students, and Columbia officially chartered the country's first student gay rights group on April 19, 1967,"<ref name=Beemyn2003 /> and subsequently the first known [[LGBT student movement]].

====Publicity and controversy====
On April 27, an article about the organization appeared in the student paper, the ''[[Columbia Daily Spectator|Columbia Spectator]]'', which students "seemed to think ... was some sort of April Fool hoax."<ref name=nytimes67 /> It soon became clear that it was not. ''The Spectator'' ran an editorial praising the chartering of the group and printed letters from students attacking and defending the decision. At this point, there was no apparent opposition from Columbia faculty or staff. The fledgling group was advised by the university chaplain, the Rev. John D. Cannon, who gave permission for them to hold meetings in his office<ref name=nytimes67 /> and later let Donaldson hold office hours there.<ref name=eisenbach />

Despite having "assured the administration that publicity would be kept to a minimum," Donaldson "launched an aggressive public information campaign about SHL and homosexuality", making sure it was covered on Columbia radio station [[WKCR]], where he was a staff member. He also sent out "at least three press releases to several large newspapers, wire services, and magazines with national and international distribution." The group received little coverage until gay rights supporter Murray Schumach saw the ''Spectator'' piece and wrote an article, headlined "Columbia Charters Homosexual Group", which appeared on the front page of ''[[The New York Times]]'' on May 3, 1967:<ref name=eisenbach />

{{blockquote|The chairman, who used the pseudonym Stephen Donaldson, said in a telephone interview last night that the organization had been formed because "we wanted to get the academic community to support equal rights for homosexuals"....

In its declaration of principles, the leagues list 13 points, including ... that "the homosexual is being unjustly, inhumanely and savagely discriminated against by large segments of American society".<ref name=nytimes67 />}}

The article also quoted Dr. Harold E. Love, the chairman of Columbia's Committee on Student Organizations, who said there was no reason to deny the request once they had determined it was a "bona fide student organization." The article noted that "[f]unds were said to have been supplied for the organization by some Columbia alumni who were reported to have learned about it from advertisements in magazines for homosexuals" and that Donaldson said that the group "maintains liaison" with, but is not controlled by, outside homosexual groups.<ref name=nytimes67 /> The alumnus supporter was [[Foster Gunnison Jr.]], a founding member of the [[North American Conference of Homophile Organizations]], with whom Donaldson had strategized about getting the organization approved. Gunnison "sent the administration a letter of support and made a cash contribution".<ref name=eisenbach/>

Historian [[David Eisenbach]] argued in ''Gay Power: An American Revolution'' that "much of the SHL's influence grew out of the media attention it attracted.... Within a week [of the ''New York Times'' story], media outlets across the country had homed in, with coverage ranging from favorable to neutral to ''[[The Gainesville Sun]]'''s 'Student Group Seeks Rights for Deviants.'".<ref name=basile>{{cite news | last = Basile | first = Jonathan | title = After 40 Years, CQA Still Seeks Equality | date = 2008-02-28 | url = http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/29630 | access-date = 2008-03-16 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080314214938/http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/29630 | archive-date = 2008-03-14 | url-status = live }}</ref>

As a result of the publicity, there were "[s]harp [verbal] clashes" between Columbia officials and the SHL.<ref name=nytimes67b>{{cite news
 | last=Schumach
 | first=Murray
 | title= Criticism by Two Officials at Columbia Angers Leaders of Student Homophile League
 | work = [[The New York Times]]
 | page = 58
 | date=1967-05-11}}</ref> Brett Beemyn wrote about the backlash:

{{blockquote|The university was inundated with outraged letters, and the pages of the student newspaper, the ''Columbia Daily Spectator'', were filled with criticism of the decision. The dean of the college called the SHL "quite unnecessary," and the director of the counseling service expressed a concern that the group would promote "deviant behavior" among students. The strong support of the league's advisor, the university chaplain, apparently prevented Columbia officials from revoking the group's charter, but "it was forbidden to serve a social function for fear that this would lead to violations of New York State's [[Sodomy laws in the United States|sodomy law]]s."<ref name=Beemyn2003 />}}

A surprising source of opposition to Donaldson and the SHL was the Mattachine Society of New York (MSNY), whose president [[Dick Leitsch]] "resented the media attention that SHL had generated". With the unanimous support of the board, Leitsch contacted "[[Frank Hogan]], the [[New York County District Attorney|Manhattan District Attorney]] and a Member of the Columbia Board of Trustees to advise him on how to undermine SHL." In a letter to Hogan, Leitsch wrote:

{{blockquote|The man using the pseudonym Stephen Donaldson is known to me and to the Mattachine Society as an irresponsible, publicity-seeking member of an extremist political group. We have grave doubts as to his sincerity in his stated aim as helping homosexuals, and feel that he may be, instead, a bigoted extremist, interested upon wrecking the homophile movement.<ref name=eisenbach />}}

Donaldson was defended by homophile leaders [[Barbara Gittings]], [[Frank Kameny]], and Forest Gunnison.<ref name=eisenbach />

====Subsequent chapters and organizations====
The publicity also led students at other universities to contact Donaldson about starting chapters. In 1968, Donaldson certified SHL chapters at [[Cornell University]], led by [[Jearld Moldenhauer]] and advised by radical priest [[Daniel Berrigan]]; [[New York University]], headed by [[Rita Mae Brown]]; and [[Stanford University]].<ref name=highleyman-shl>{{cite journal
 |title=First Student Homophile League Forms
 |journal=GLBT History, 1956–1975
 |year=2005
 |first=Liz
 |last=Highleyman
 |pages=60–63 }}
</ref> In 1969, chapters were started at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] by Stan Tillotson, [[San Francisco State University]], and [[Rutgers University]] by [[African American]] Lionel Cuffie. The [[University of Massachusetts Amherst]] gained a chapter in 1970.<ref name=highleyman-shl/> Other early campus gay groups outside the SHL network included the [[Boston University]] Homophile Committee, [[Queer Student Cultural Center|Fight Repression of Erotic Expression (FREE)]] at the [[University of Minnesota system|University of Minnesota]], and Homosexuals Intransigent at the [[City College of New York]].<ref name=highleyman-shl/>

Donaldson was "heavily involved throughout the rest of the 1960s not only as national leader of the Student Homophile League but also as an elected officer of the North American Conference of Homophile Organizations (NACHO) and of its Eastern Regional subsidiary".<ref name=donaldson /> By 1971, there were an estimated 150 gay student groups at colleges and universities "often with official sanction and with remarkable acceptance from fellow students".<ref name=nyt71>{{cite news
 | last=Reinhold
 | first=Robert
 | title= Campus Homosexuals Organize To Win Community Acceptance
 | work = [[The New York Times]]
 | pages =1, 47
 | date=1971-12-15}}</ref>