Cheri Pies death: Author of ‘pioneering’ lesbian parenting handbook dies of cancer at 73

Cheri Pies broke new ground for gay mothers when she published ‘Considering Parenthood: A Workbook for Lesbians’ in 1985

Cheri Pies was a professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley (University of California, Berkeley)

The writer of one of America's first ever parenting books for lesbians has died of cancer at age 73.

Cheri Pies, a professor emerita of public health at the University of California, Berkeley, broke new ground for gay mothers when she published Considering Parenthood: A Workbook for Lesbians in 1985.

The university announced earlier this month that Pies had died on 4 July at her home in Berkeley, describing her as a trailblazer and “a national leader in women's health”.

“She was absolutely a pioneer, and those of us who came later built on her work,” said G Dorsey Green, a psychologist who co-authored 2003's The Lesbian Parenting Book, according to the university.

“I would recommend her book to clients. That was when lesbian couples were just starting to think about having children as out lesbians. Cheri started that conversation.”

Pies, whose first name is pronounced “Sherry”, had worked as a health educator for Planned Parenthood during the 1970s, counselling straight women who were considering having children.

At the time, openly gay parents were exceedingly rare and most US states did not permit gay couples to adopt, while gay marriage was half a century away.

In 1978, though, Pies’ female partner adopted a child. Pies struggled to find any information or support for gay couples raising children, so she began holding workshops at her home in Oakland, just across the bridge from San Francisco.

The workshops became wildly popular, and so in the Eighties she compiled the material into her pioneering book, which gave practical advice on issues such as finding a sperm donor, navigating adoption law and building a network of supportive friends and relatives.

“Because of Cheri’s work there was a critical mass of people saying ‘yes, we can have the family we want’,” said Berkeley health professor Lori Dorfman. “There are people walking the earth because of Cheri Pies.”

One woman who attended Pies’ workshops, Jill Rose, said she and her partner would have struggled to adopt without her help and that they consider her their children’s honorary godmother.

Pies went on to earn a doctorate in health education in 1993, working as the director of family and child health programmes for nearby Contra Costa County and later also becoming a lecturer at Berkeley.

She is survived by her wife Melinda Linder and her sisters Lois Goldberg and Stacy Pies.