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Donny the Punk

Bisexual History

(TW FOR RAPE)

Though born Robert Anthony Martin Jr, he largely went by Stephen Donaldson. Born July 27, 1946, he started his started activism in 1965 when entering Columbia University. Before applying, he called to ask if they would accept a “known” homosexual. The university allowed him to register under the condition that he would attend psychotherapy and not attempt to seduce other students.

While attending, he started pushing for a “Student Homophile League” at the college. This would lead to Columbia University chartering the United States first student gay rights group in April of 1067, and the first known LGBT student movement.

In 1966, he fell in love with a woman named Judith “JD Rabbit” Jones, a lesbian group leader. Their relationship would eventually lead to him identifying as bisexual. This led to great tension between Donny and the gay liberation movement due to biphobia within the ranks. He began advocating on behalf of bisexuals, forming a group with bisexual quakers in 1972. This group would adopt the “Ithaca Statement on Bisexuality” which is considered one of the first public declarations of the bisexual movement.

He would go on to join the navy but was later discharged after his sexuality was discovered. While initially just listed as a “discharge,” Donaldson fought the move in court so it would later be recognized as an honorable discharge. This is seen as the beginning of the fight against government sanctioned homophobia within the military

Following his discharge, he began protesting against violence. He attended demonstrations against the bombing of Nagasaki and Cambodia and would be arrested for his attendance. While other protesters posted bail, Donaldson refused, stating:

“I also was protesting against the bail system, under which the privileged, the white, the middle class escape the pre-trial confinements which go automatically to the poor and black. In good conscience I could not take advantage of the privileges available to me.”

While in prison, Donaldson would be raped by an estimated 45 other inmates in a coordinated attack. After two nights of abuse, Donaldson escaped, sobbing at the cell block gate for the guards to save him. Though he was brought to the hospital (remaining handcuffed the entire time), he was sent back to the prison without treatment. Until his death, Donaldson maintained that the prison employees helped set up the assault.

One of the women he protested with posted his bail in order to get him medical attention.The day after being bailed out, Donaldson held a press conference, making him the first male prison rape survivor to publicly discuss his experiences. However, he faced a dilemma when there became a push for Donaldson to take his assailants to trial.

“I was faced with an awful decision: to cooperate in the prosecution of the two young inmates who had led the rapes, to bring the suit against the corrections department, or to drop out of the legal process.

The prospect of giving my assailants a still longer prison term went contrary to [my deep convictions]. Yet many who were working to change the penal system felt that the first prosecution of a prison rape case would set a significant precedent and have a real deterrent effect on such situations in the future…Torn between my rigid principles and my private pain, I spent weeks in hell trying to come to a decision.”

After much deliberation, Donaldson refused to go through with the trail and dropped all charges.

He would go onto spend much of the rest of his life in and out of prisons, facing long periods in solitary confinement and multiple other assaults. He never felt he received the therapy and help required for him recover from his experiences.

He eventually became the president of Stop Prisoner Rape, Inc. (now known as Just Detention International) which worked to help prisoners recover from the trauma of rape and develop preventative measures to keep prison rape from occurring. He would eventually die in 1996 from AIDS, which he contracted during one of the assaults. His work and the foundations he led would eventually bring about the passage of the first US law against rape in prison called the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003.

Donaldson spent his life fighting against homophobia and biphobia, participating in punk and anti-racist skinhead subcultures, as well as advocating for the rights of prisoners and rape survivors.

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