Matt Dorsey is an American politician and communications professional. Dorsey has served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing District 6 since his appointment by Mayor

London Breed London Nicole Breed (born August 11, 1974) is an American politician who is the 45th and current mayor of the City and County of San Francisco. She was supervisor for District 5 and was president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Board ...

on May 9, 2022. He previously served as the Head of Communications for the San Francisco Police Department.

Career

Dorsey worked strategic communications for

San Francisco City Attorney The City Attorney of San Francisco is an elected position in the City and County of San Francisco, California. While city-county consolidation resulted in the unified government attaining both a city attorney and a district attorney, the two po ...

Dennis Herrera Dennis Herrera is an American attorney, currently serving as Public Utilities Commission general manager for San Francisco. Herrera was previously City Attorney of San Francisco, known for his longtime legal advocacy for same-sex marriage in Cali ...

for 14 years. Dorsey worked for the San Francisco Police Department from 2020-2022, where he served as Head of Strategic Communications. In that role, he faced criticism for promoting what is sometimes referred to as "copaganda" in trying to make the police department look good and cover up legitimate problems with the San Francisco Police Department. He defended the police department for its controversial decision to withdraw unilaterally from a highly-effective Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the District Attorney's Office, which allowed for the DA's Office to investigate police shootings and other cases of alleged police misconduct.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors

Dorsey was appointed to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on May 9, 2022, by Mayor

to replace outgoing District 6 Supervisor

Matt Haney Matthew Craig Haney (born April 17, 1982) is an American politician from San Francisco currently serving as a member of the California State Assembly from the 17th district, covering the eastern portion of the city. A progressive member of the ...

for the rest of his term. Unlike his predecessor, Dorsey will not represent

Tenderloin, San Francisco The Tenderloin is a neighborhood in downtown San Francisco, in the flatlands on the southern slope of Nob Hill, situated between the Union Square shopping district to the northeast and the Civic Center office district to the southwest. It encom ...

, which was moved to District 5 after

redistricting Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral dist ...

in 2022. District 6 has 76,000 San Francisco residents and consists of

South of Market South of Market (SoMa) is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, situated just south of Market Street. It contains several sub-neighborhoods including South Beach, Yerba Buena, and Rincon Hill. SoMa is home to many of the city's museums ...

, Rincon Hill, South Beach, Mission Bay, Mid-Market, The Hub (near Market and Octavia) and Showplace Square (Southwestern SoMa). Dorsey ran for election in November 2022. He defeated Honey Mahogany, a former aide to Matt Haney, who would have been the first transgender supervisor. Dorsey was supported by the conservative-moderate PAC, Grow SF. Dorsey and London Breed decided to not march in San Francisco Pride 2022 after the organizers banned police officers from marching in uniform. After Pride reached a compromise with the police, Dorsey and Breed agreed to march. Dorsey faced controversy for his support for a documentary on San Francisco's police department, which was a project he began promoting during his time working for the police department and then supported as a supervisor. Many saw his promotion of this film as a continuation of Dorsey being a "police apologist."

Personal life

Dorsey is gay. He is

HIV-positive The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immun ...

. Dorsey is in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorsey, Matt Living people San Francisco Board of Supervisors members 21st-century American politicians California Democrats LGBT people from San Francisco LGBT city councillors from the United States Gay politicians Year of birth missing (living people)