Cheri Pies, Who Guided Lesbian Couples in Parenthood, Dies at 73
Cheri Pies, a professor of public health who broke barriers with her landmark 1985 book, “Considering Parenthood: A Workbook for Lesbians,” a bible of the “gayby boom” of the 1980s and beyond, died on July 4 at her home in Berkeley, Calif.
She was 73. The cause was cancer, said her wife, Melina Linder. Later in life, Dr. Pies (her first name was pronounced “Sherry”) became a pioneering researcher and professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, investigating the effects of economic and racial inequality in matters like infant mortality and health over generations.
But she made her name decades before her turn toward academia with her groundbreaking book. That journey began in the 1970s, when Dr.
Pies was working as a health educator for Planned Parenthood, counseling straight women considering motherhood. Her focus began to shift in 1978, after her female partner adopted a daughter.
