Professor Gearhart's Name Suggested for Public School in San Francisco

BAY AREA REPORTER -- Others on the list included the Bay Area Reporter’s late founding publisher Bob Ross and Milk’s gay successor on the Board of Supervisors Harry Britt, who died in June at the age of 82. Another of Milk’s compatriots mentioned by former BAR assistant editor Dennis Conkin was Sally Gearhart. She worked with Milk on the 1978 defeat of Proposition 6, a California ballot initiative that sought to exclude gay men and lesbians from teaching in public schools.

Now living in Northern California, Gearhart was the first out lesbian to receive a tenure-track position at San Francisco State University in 1973. She also established one of the first women’s and gender studies programs in the country while at SF State.