Sally Miller Gearhart (April 15, 1931 – July 14, 2021) – author, academic, feminist, and activist – passed away on July 14 at the age of 90 at a care home in Ukiah, California.

Gearhart made history in 1973 when she was hired by San Francisco State University to become the nation’s first tenure-tracked openly-LGBTQ professor. She helped establish one of the country’s first women and gender studies programs at SFSU, and later became a nationally recognized gay rights activist.

In 1952, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama and English from Sweet Briar College in Virginia before getting a Master’s in theater and public address from Bowling Green State University in 1953 and a Ph.D. in theater from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1956.

She began teaching at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas, later moved to Texas Lutheran College (now University) before following a lover to Kansas in 1969. She moved to San Francisco in 1970 to live openly as a lesbian, and began working at San Francisco State in 1973, where she remained until her retirement in 1992.

In 1978, Gearhart served with SF Supervisor Harvey Milk as co-chair of the statewide campaign to defeat Proposition 6, the initiative by State Senator John Briggs that would have banned gay men and lesbians from teaching in public schools. The initiative was defeated in a landslide by a nearly 17-point margin: 58.4% against to 41.6% in favor.

Her role in the campaign to defeat the initiative was chronicled in The Times of Harvey Milk, a 1984 documentary that won an Oscar for Best Documentary at the 57th Academy Awards. She was also featured in several other documentaries, including Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives (1977) and Last Call at Maud’s (1993).

Gearhart was also known for her utopian feminist science fiction novels like The Wanderground (1978), her first and most famous novel. She eventually created her own lesbian utopian space near Willits, California, where she lived until she moved to an assisted living facility in Ukiah.

Read More

Bard, Kevin, “Remembering Sally Gearhart at Tuesday’s meeting,” The Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, July 19, 2021.

“Briggs Initiative,” Wikipedia. Accessed July 26, 2021.

Laird, Cynthia, “Lesbian educator Sally Gearhart dies,” Bay Area Reporter, July 14, 2021.

“New Documentary Explores Lesbian Activist, Professor Emerita Sally Gearhart’s Incredible, Multifaceted Life,” San Francisco State University, April 1, 2021.

Ring, Trudy, “Sally Gearhart, Veteran Activist and Academic, Dead at 90,” The Advocate, July 15, 2021.

“Sally Miller Gearhart,” Wikipedia. Accessed July 25, 2021.

“The Times of Harvey Milk,” Wikipedia. Accessed July 25, 2021.