Sally Miller Gearhart

Sally Miller Gearhart
Sally Miller Gearhart in Eugene, Oregon, November 2013
Born	Sally Miller Gearhart (1931-04-15) April 15, 1931 Pearisburg, Virginia, US
Occupation	Novelist
Genre	Science fiction, Feminist Theory, Gender Studies
Website
sallymillergearhart.net

Sally Miller Gearhart (born April 15, 1931) is an American teacher, feminist, science fiction writer, and political activist. In 1973 she became the first open lesbian to obtain a tenure-track faculty position when she was hired by San Francisco State University, where she helped establish one of the first women and gender study programs in the country. She later became a nationally known gay rights activist.

Early life

Gearhart attended an all-women's institution, Sweet Briar College near Lynchburg, Virginia. She graduated with a B.A. in Drama and English in 1952. At Bowling Green State University she obtained a master's degree in theater and public address in 1953. She continued on at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, getting her Ph.D. in theater in 1956, with the intent of pursuing a life of academia.

Teaching

Gearhart began teaching speech and theater at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, and later moved to Texas Lutheran College (now University) in Seguin, Texas. In both positions, Gearhart lived in the closet, determined to hide her true sexual identity to fit with the culture of the schools. As a professor, she was incredibly popular and sought-after, but her personal life was full of the struggles of living in the closet. This continued until she moved to San Francisco, California in 1970.

By 1973, Gearhart was employed at San Francisco State University, where she went from teaching speech to teaching women's studies. There she was able to develop one of the first women and gender studies programs in the United States. She continued at San Francisco State University until her retirement in 1992.

A fund was established by Carla Blumberg, one of Gearhart's former students, in Gearhart's name in January 2008 at the University of Oregon for the Sally Miller Gearhart Chair in Lesbian Studies, as a part of the Women and Gender Studies program.

Activism

After Gearhart received tenure from SFSU she was able to continue her writings focused on lesbianism and related political topics, along with becoming politically active, fighting in particular for radical feminist causes.

In 1978, Gearhart fought alongside Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay politicians in the U.S., to defeat California Proposition 6, known as the "Briggs Initiative." Gearhart famously debated John Briggs, attacking the initiative to ban homosexuals from academic positions. A clip of the debate appeared in the documentary film The Times of Harvey Milk, which also included Gearhart talking about working with Milk against Proposition 6, and reactions in San Francisco in the aftermath of Milk's assassination.

Gearhart was also featured in several documentaries, including Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives, released in 1977, and "Last Call at Maud's" released in 1993.

Writing

While living in San Francisco, Gearhart began writing science fiction novels and short stories that highlighted her utopian ideals for a wider lesbian audience. In 1978 her most famous novel, The Wanderground, was published. She has also written two books as part of the Earthkeep trilogy, The Kanshou, published in 2002, and The Magister, published in 2003. Both stories explore a dystopian world where women outnumber men, and humans are the only beings on the planet.

She did not limit her writing to the science fiction genre. She also wrote a book entitled Loving Women/Loving Men: Gay Liberation and the Church, which was aimed at the conservative Christian churches and communities that barred homosexuals from fellowship. While never fully embracing the Christian faith, Gearhart did acknowledge the parts of it that were meaningful for her own ideals. She once stated that “love is the universal truth lying at the heart of all creation.” She also co-wrote A Feminist Tarot with Susan Rennie. When it was first published in 1981 by Persephone Press, it was one of several tarot divination books on the market attempting to find alternative meanings within the symbology. Unusual for a work of feminist spirituality at a time of goddess worship, she kept the conventional Rider Waite Smith imagery and wrote a book to accompany it, reinterpreting and subverting the stated meanings.

Gearhart lives north of Willits, California and labels herself "a recovering political activist."

She is also known for the controversial "The future—if there is one—is female" essay she wrote for an anthology on feminism and non-violence, with a proposal to reduce number of men to 10% of the population.

Even after decades of feminist research we do not know for sure about the nature of female and male people—whether or not the male is “naturally” violent, the female “naturally” nurturant—and we are not likely, while sex roles still exist, to ascertain anything in this regard. This paper then, presupposes that the last ten thousand years of global patriarchy have given us a vivid and grim idea of what happens when men are in charge; it further assumes that as a species and as a global village we have nothing to lose and everything to gain by reversing the present power circumstances and returning to women the fundamental responsibility for human affairs. ...

If we would have the world a less violent place species responsibility must be returned to women in every culture, that is to say, women must regain their say-so over the proper size and character of the human race. There is no way to achieve that without our traversing some very familiar ground. The whole of feminism in these last two centuries has been concerned with the liberation of women from their role as sexual servants of men; even to approach the place where women's own bodily freedom is a given, we have to raise all the economic and psychological questions of male domination. But once they have control of their own bodies, then women stand in exactly the critical position necessary for their reclaiming of the more essential responsibility, that of monitoring the reproduction of the species. ...

But even if the female body were at last free, and a female future guaranteed, and even if the race began its more proportionate and gentle relationship to its environment, there is still no guarantee that the level of violence, competition, and alienation could be held in check. To secure a world of female values and female freedom we must, I believe, add one more element to the structure of the future: the ratio of men to women must be radically reduced so that men approximate only ten percent of the total population. This would have to be done, not by men’s traditional methods of war or execution, but without loss of any present human life in the endeavor. Further, it would have to be done within cultures themselves, without outside intervention. ...

Some have asked, given the overwhelming association of men with violence, why the reduction to ten percent only? Why have any men at all? I take that question quite seriously. First, I have no desire (and I know few women who do) to do away with men as a group; I cannot bring myself fully to the conviction even in spite of their behavior that men are beyond redemption; the moment I indulge in that conclusion a very gentle and loving man, woman-identified or “sissy”-identified, appears to give the lie to my generalization. Second, sexual intercourse is the easiest means of reproduction and one that some women prefer; those women must have the freedom to choose it. Finally we need to maintain ten percent males for the simple reason that I may be wrong; we may discover that violence does not disappear with the reduction of males and that for the human species at least the present 47% ratio of males is more nearly appropriate.

Gearhart's proposed method for altering the sex ratio was ovular merging, which does not require any sperm; as of 2016, thirty-six years after her essay appeared, it has only been demonstrated in mice. She does not mention using abortion to alter the sex ratio.

Legacy

The Sally Miller Gearhart Papers (1956-1999) are held at the Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries.

Gearhart is an entry in the 2003 dictionary-like book The A to Z of the Lesbian Liberation Movement: Still the Rage, by JoAnne Myers.

The Sally Miller Gearhart Fund for lesbian studies was created to promote research and teaching in lesbian studies through an annual lecture series and an endowed professorship at the University of Oregon. The annual Sally Miller Gearhart Lecture in Lesbian Studies at the University of Oregon was first held on May 27, 2009; this first lecture was titled The Incredibly Shrinking Lesbian World and Other Queer Conundra, and was given by Arlene Stein of Rutgers University.

Gearhart was portrayed by Carrie Preston in the 2017 miniseries When We Rise, which dealt with the evolution of the LGBT community in San Francisco and advancement of LGBT civil rights in America.

Bibliography

• Some modern American concepts of tragic drama as revealed by the critical writings of twentieth century American playwrights (1953)
• Aristotle and Modern Theorists on the Elements of Tragedy. (1969)
• The Lesbian and God-the-Father, or, All the Church Needs Is a Good Lay ... On Its Side (1972)
• Loving Women/Loving Men: Gay Liberation and the Church. (1974)
• The Wanderground (1979)
• " The Sword and the Vessel Versus the Lake on the Lake" (1980)
• " The Future - if there is one - is Female " (1981)
• A Feminist Tarot (1981)
• The Kanshou (2002)
• The Magister (2003)

External links

• Official website
• Guide to the Sally Miller Gearhart papers at the University of Oregon.
• Sally Miller Gearhart at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database