Sally Miller Gearhart (April 15, 1931 – July 14, 2021) was an American teacher, feminist, science-fiction writer, and political activist.

[1] 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.

[3] 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".

[6] Gearhart famously debated John Briggs, attacking the initiative to ban homosexuals from academic positions in public schools.

[citation needed] Throughout her career, Gearhart fought for animal rights and became involved with ecologically based causes and the women's spirituality movement.

"[9] While living in San Francisco, Gearhart began writing feminist science-fiction novels and short stories that highlighted her utopian ideals for a wider lesbian audience.

Unusual for a work of feminist spirituality at a time of goddess worship, this book reinterpreted and subverted the stated meanings of the Rider Waite Smith deck.

The fact that it has done so with language and metalanguage, with refined functions of the mind, instead of with whips or rifles does not excuse it from the mindset of the violent.

"[1] In her early career, Gearhart took part in a series of seminars at San Francisco State University, where feminist scholars were critically discussing issues of rape, slavery, and the possibility of nuclear annihilation.

Gearhart outlines a three-step proposal for female-led social change from her essay, "The Future–-If There Is One–-is Female": Gearhart does not base this radical proposal on the idea that men are innately violent or oppressive, but rather on the "real danger is in the phenomenon of male-bonding, that commitment of groups of men to each other whether in an army, a gang, a service club, a lodge, a monastic order, a corporation, or a competitive sport."

Gearhart identifies the self-perpetuating, male-exclusive reinforcement of power within these groups as corrosive to female-led social change.

[3][25] Gearhart spent her later years in Willits, a small town situated in the heart of Mendocino County's "Redwood country" in northern California, before moving to a care home in nearby Ukiah.

[27] It was created to promote research and teaching in lesbian studies through an annual lecture series and an endowed professorship at the university.

The first lecture was given by Arlene Stein of Rutgers University on May 27, 2009, and it was titled The Incredibly Shrinking Lesbian World and Other Queer Conundra.