Theresa Sparks is an American transgender woman, and is the Executive Director of the

San Francisco Human Rights Commission The San Francisco Human Rights Commission (HRC) is a charter commission of the City and County of San Francisco that works to increase equality, eradicate discrimination, and to protect human rights for all people. The HRC enforces City Ordinance ...

and was a candidate for San Francisco Supervisor for District 6 in the November 2010 election. She is a former president of the

San Francisco Police Commission The San Francisco Police Commission is the governing body of the San Francisco Police Department. 2020 meeting The Police Commission heard testimony from SFPD Chief Bill Scott about arrests at protests against police brutality triggered by the ...

and former CEO of

Good Vibrations "Good Vibrations" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was composed by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Mike Love. It was released as a single on October 10, 1966 and was an immediate critical and commercial hit, topping record ...

. She is also one of San Francisco's most famous

transgender women A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and ...

and was a Grand Marshal in the 2008 San Francisco Pride Parade. Sparks is also a member of the Emeritus Board of the

Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club The Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club (first known as The Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club) is a San Francisco-based association and political action committee for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Democrats. The political ...

, a Navy veteran and a trained

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

.Delgado, Ray
Theresa Sparks: Transgender San Franciscan Makes History as Woman of the Year

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

(April 4, 2003), pp. WB-3. Retrieved on May 13, 2007.Heredia, Christopher
Transgender Woman Joins Rights Board: Appointment is a San Francisco First
San Francisco Chronicle (February 3, 2001), pp. A-13. Retrieved on May 13, 2007. She is a member of the board of directors of the Horizons Foundation, a community-based LGBT

philanthropic Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

organization.

Early life

Theresa Sparks was born on April 8, 1949, in

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As of ...

, where she grew up.Selna, Robert; Sward, Susan; Vega, Cecilia M
Renne Quits Police Commission
San Francisco Chronicle (May 11, 2007), pp. B-9. Retrieved on May 13, 2007.Vega, Cecilia M
Transgender Pioneer Rises to Powerful Spot
San Francisco Chronicle (May 12, 2007), pp. A-1. Retrieved on May 13, 2007. Assigned

male Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...

at birth, Sparks expressed her

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the ...

at an early age by wearing women's clothing, though she later resisted these impulses in adolescence. Sparks went to Kansas State University and graduated with a degree in

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

. She served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. Later she managed several

waste management Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitorin ...

and

recycling Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...

companies and

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

ed two recycling techniques. She married her first wife in 1971 and together they had three children: two sons and a daughter. After nine years of

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

, Sparks finally revealed to her wife her desire to live as a woman. They separated shortly after and eventually

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

d. Sparks remarried, but that marriage also ended in divorce. Sparks underwent "intense therapy and an

electric shock treatment Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroconvulsive th ...

" to try to suppress her

femininity Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered f ...

, before deciding at last to embrace her

. "It's an unusual condition, but it's not unnatural," she said later. "You discover that the only way to live with it is to transition physically so your physical appearance matches how you feel about yourself."

Transitioning

By 1997, Sparks moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, where she felt she could more easily adjust to life as a woman. But even there, in a city known as one of the most transgender-friendly in the country, Sparks faced challenges as a transgender woman. Despite 20 years of experience in

and managing three environmental consulting companies as a man, Sparks struggled to find an occupation in San Francisco as a woman. She applied unsuccessfully for more than 100 jobs.Nieves, Evelyn
Another Minority Flexes Its Muscle in San Francisco

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

(February 24, 2001). Retrieved on May 13, 2007. Sparks eventually acquired sporadic work as a cab driver,

bank teller A bank teller (often abbreviated to simply teller) is an employee of a bank whose responsibilities include the handling of customer cash and negotiable instruments. In some places, this employee is known as a cashier or customer representative. ...

, and

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

taker to avoid becoming homeless. One evening while walking through the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, an area known to be strolled by transgender

sex worker A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry.Oxford English Dictionary, "sex worker" According to one view, sex work i ...

s, Sparks said she was harassed by a police officer, who demanded to see her identification and questioned what she was doing there. " he policeassume if there's a transgender person walking down the street in the Tenderloin it's probably because they're prostitutes," she later said about the experience.Gordon, Rachel
S.F. Transgender Sensitivity Classes: Police Training is Response to Complaints About Lack of Respect
San Francisco Chronicle (August 10, 2001), pp. A-21. Retrieved on May 13, 2007.

Activism

Not long after her arrival in San Francisco, Sparks immersed herself in the San Francisco political landscape. Frustrated with the obstacles she and other transgender people were facing such as employment and housing discrimination, anti-transgender violence, police harassment, and a lack of affordable medical treatment, she helped organize a group of transgender activists to lobby the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. In 1999 they formed the Transgender Political Caucus (TPC) and campaigned to elect

members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body of San Francisco, California, United States. The body consists of eleven members elected from single-member districts through ranked choice voting. From 1977 to 1979, and startin ...

who would fight for transgender civil rights. Sparks became the chair of the nascent transgender activist group, TG Rage, and in 1999 organized the very first

Transgender Day of Remembrance The Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR), also known as the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, has been observed annually (from its inception) on November 20 as a day to memorialize those who have been murdered as a result of transp ...

to memorialize those transgender men and women who lost their lives to

transphobic Transphobia is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger tow ...

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened ...

.Cassell, Heather
Vote is on for SF Pride Marshals
,

Bay Area Reporter The ''Bay Area Reporter'' is a free weekly newspaper serving the LGBT communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the largest-circulation LGBT newspapers in the United States, and the country's oldest continuously published newspaper ...

(March 1, 2007). Retrieved on May 15, 2007. Held in the Harvey Milk Plaza of the

Castro District The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...

, the Transgender Day of Remembrance grew into an annual event honored around the world every November. Theresa Sparks at San Francisco Trans March 2016

Theresa Sparks at San Francisco Trans March 2016

Public Service

In 2000, Sparks' activism prompted Supervisor

Mark Leno Mark Leno (born September 24, 1951) is an American politician who served in the California State Senate until November 2016. A Democrat, he represented the 11th Senate district, which includes San Francisco and portions of San Mateo County. Bef ...

to create a new city work group, the Transgender Civil Rights Implementation Task Force, of which Sparks became a charter member. A year later, Sparks and Leno helped to establish broader medical benefits for municipal employees diagnosed with Gender dysphoria.

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

S.F. Will Pay for Sex Changes

Wired News ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fran ...

, (May 5, 2001). Retrieved on May 17, 2007. The new law was the only governmental policy of its kind in the nation and provided medical coverage for hormone therapy and

sex reassignment surgery Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a transgender or transsexual person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender, and a ...

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

Willie Brown appointed Sparks to chair the LGBT Advisory Committee of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission in early 2001, making her the Commission's first-ever transgender appointee. Sparks used her position to lobby for a new transgender-

sensitivity training Sensitivity training is a form of training with the goal of making people more aware of their own goals as well as their prejudices, and more sensitive to others and to the dynamics of group interaction. Origins Kurt Lewin laid the foundations fo ...

program for county police officers, which the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) on August 10, 2001 agreed to produce. The program includes specific guidelines for how to treat transgender people and how to appropriately document cases involving transgender people. She served on the commission for two four-year terms. On June 16, 2016, San Francisco Mayor

Ed Lee Edwin Mah Lee (Chinese: 李孟賢; May 5, 1952 – December 12, 2017) was an American politician and attorney who served as the 43rd Mayor of San Francisco from 2011 until his death. He was the first Asian American to hold the office. Born in ...

appointed Sparks as senior advisor on transgender initiatives.

Police Commission

Impressed with Sparks' public service, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors appointed Sparks a police commissioner, and she was sworn in on April 30, 2004 by Mayor

Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California f ...

. She served for two years as the commission vice president until May 24, 2006, when she voluntarily declined to reapply for that position: the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sparks "slam ed her fellow commissioners, citing the Police Commission's lack of progress in addressing the city's high murder rate, loss of SFPD staff, and low police

morale Morale, also known as esprit de corps (), is the capacity of a group's members to maintain belief in an institution or goal, particularly in the face of opposition or hardship. Morale is often referenced by authority figures as a generic value ...

. On May 9, 2007, Sparks made history yet again when she was elected president of the

by a single vote, making her the first transgender person ever to be elected president of any San Francisco commission and San Francisco's highest ranking transgender official.McMillan, Dennis
Sparks Is First Trans Person to Lead Major Commission

San Francisco Bay Times The San Francisco Bay Times, the first LGBTQ newspaper founded jointly and equally by gay men and women, launched in 1978 and remains one of the largest and oldest LGBTQ newspapers in Northern California. The business includes the 24/7 live-stream ...

(May 17, 2007). Retrieved on October 15, 2007. The deciding vote was cast by Commissioner Joe Alioto Veronese, which came as a surprise to many observers who expected the Newsom-appointee to back Joe Marshall, the candidate Newsom preferred. Newsom himself was reportedly stunned. "Theresa defines trailblazer," Cecilia Chung told the ''

'' shortly after the election. Chung, deputy director of the

Transgender Law Center The Transgender Law Center (TLC) is the largest American transgender-led civil rights organization in the United States. They were originally California's first "fully staffed, state-wide transgender legal organization" and were initially a fisca ...

and a member of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, saw Sparks election as a landmark moment for transgender people in the city. "Her brilliance and dedication continue to open doors for transgender people throughout San Francisco and the state. She represents a strong, committed voice for our community on issues of police reform and oversight; and this election is a clear indicator of the increasing number of leadership opportunities that are open to more and more community members."

Good Vibrations

Sparks found some

temporary work Temporary work or temporary employment (also called gigs) refers to an employment situation where the working arrangement is limited to a certain period of time based on the needs of the employing organization. Temporary employees are sometimes ...

in 2001 in the shipping department of the worker-owned

sex toy A sex toy is an object or device that is primarily used to facilitate human sexual pleasure, such as a dildo, artificial vagina or vibrator. Many popular sex toys are designed to resemble human genitals, and may be vibrating or non-vibratin ...

company

. The

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of Good Vibrations, Beth Doyle, quickly recognized Sparks' management skills and hired her as a financial manager when the position became available three months later.Anderson, Lessley
A Sex Toy Story
Business 2.0 Magazine Vol. 7 No. 4 (May 1, 2006). Retrieved on May 13, 2007. Doyle left the company in April 2005, frustrated with the constraints of the

co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

business structure, and the board of Good Vibrations elected Sparks to be the new general manager. On February 1, 2006 under Sparks' leadership, the board voted unanimously to drop Good Vibration's co-op structure but retain its progressive business roots. Sparks herself was the main instigator of the change. "We researched

Whole Foods Whole Foods Market IP, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon, is an upscale American multinational supermarket chain headquartered in Austin, Texas, which sells products free from hydrogenated fats and artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. A US ...

Ben & Jerry's Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc., trading and commonly known as Ben & Jerry's, is an American company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. Founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, the company went from a single ice cream ...

, and others. All these companies have progressive values, but they're not co-ops," Sparks' explained to a reporter later. "Something had to give." Shares of the newly structured company were split evenly. However, Good Vibrations' Internet sales, which had initially been successful and at one time accounted for two thirds of its income, began to suffer as mass-market retailers

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential econo ...

and Drugstore.com began to carry adult merchandise. The company also faced competition from small independent adult entertainment websites. Facing a cash crisis, the company appealed on its website for potential investors to enable it to buy inventory for the 2007 holiday season. In September, 2007, the company was purchased by adult novelty wholesaler GVA-TWN, which also owns 50 adult retail stores in the Midwest and

affiliate program Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement in which affiliates receive a commission for each visit, signup or sale they generate for a merchant. This arrangement allows businesses to outsource part of the sales process. It is a form of pe ...

PECash. Before the sale, the board of directors included Sparks,

Margaret Cho Margaret Moran Cho (born December 5, 1968) is an American comedian, actress, LGBT social activist, and musician. She is known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially regarding race and se ...

, Donna Daniels, Charlie Glickman,

Carol Queen Carol Queen (born 1957) is an American author, editor, sociologist, and sexologist active in the sex-positive feminism movement. Queen is a two time Grand Marshal of San Francisco LGBTQ Pride. Queen has written on human sexuality in books such a ...

, Linda Shaw and James Williamson. Both companies announced that there were no immediate plans to lay off workers or change the company's management. At a speech commemorating the

Compton's Cafeteria riot The Compton's Cafeteria riot occurred in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. The riot was a response to the violent and constant police harassment of drag queens and trans people, particularly trans women. The incident was o ...

, Sparks said her company was "one of the top U.S. employers of transgenders" and "proud to continue the fight for transgender equality."

Woman of the Year

In 2003, Theresa Sparks became the first transgender woman ever named "Woman of the Year" by the California State Assembly. Assemblyman

, Sparks' friend and a fellow activist for transgender civil rights, said he selected Sparks for the award, not only to honor her advocacy on behalf of the

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

community, but to humanize a transgender civil rights bill he introduced earlier that year. Assembly Bill 196, which was signed into law by

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Gray Davis later that year, amended the

California Fair Employment and Housing Act The California Fair Employment and Housing Act of 1959, codified as Government Code §§12900 - 12996, is a California statute used to fight sexual harassment and other forms of unlawful discrimination in employment and housing, which was passed on ...

, making it illegal to discriminate in employment or housing decisions on the basis of

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

status or gender stereotypes. Jay Leno angered the

National Transgender Advocacy Coalition The National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) was a federal level political lobbying and advocacy organization which was founded in 1999 and established as a 501(c)(4) lobbying group in Virginia of 2000. The NTAC was founded by a group of ex ...

(NTAC) after making jokes about Sparks' award on a March 31, 2003 broadcast of his

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Sh ...

The Tonight Show ''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. The show has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 201 ...

. During his opening monologue, Leno quipped, "The

California Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The Ass ...

awarded a man who had a sex change as its Woman of the Year. When he accepted the award, he said there was a part of him that didn't want to accept it — but that's gone now." The NTAC's executive director, Vanessa Edwards Foster, criticized Leno's comments as dehumanizing. "In a country where no positive accomplishments of transgender people are ever reported it's curious that belittling humor of these same people is openly welcomed," Forster said. "Leno's remarks took an historic recognition for a transgender community leader and summarily diminished it with insensitive humor." The NTAC also criticized Leno for using the male pronoun to refer to Sparks. The LGBT Advisory Committee of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission reported at a meeting on April 15 that Jay Leno had apologized to

for his comments. Minutes of the meeting also recorded that "national organizations have been responding to Mr. Leno without conferring with Commissioner Sparks first".Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Advisory Committee: Minutes of the April 15, 2003 Meeting
Official San Francisco City and County Website (April 15, 2003). Retrieved on May 18, 2007.

Awards and honors

*Honor Roll of LGBT Elected and Appointed Officials, Horizons Foundation (2004) *

Community Service Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community without any form of compensation. Community service can be distinct from volunteering, since it is not always performe ...

Award, Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club (2001) *Honorary

Grand Marshal Grand marshal is a ceremonial, military, or political office of very high rank. The term has its origins with the word "marshal" with the first usage of the term "grand marshal" as a ceremonial title for certain religious orders. The following ...

, San Francisco Pride (2001)

References

External links

Official website

San Francisco District 6 Supervisor Campaign website

Frequently Asked Questions

Long road to acceptance for man who became woman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sparks, Theresa 1949 births Living people American businesspeople in retailing American women chief executives American civil rights activists American consultants Engineers from California American law enforcement officials American LGBT military personnel California Democrats Kansas State University alumni American LGBT businesspeople LGBT law enforcement workers American LGBT rights activists People from Kansas City, Kansas Businesspeople from San Diego Businesspeople from San Francisco San Francisco Police Department Transgender women Transgender politicians Transgender military personnel Waste managers Women in California politics LGBT people from California LGBT people from Kansas Women in law enforcement Female United States Navy personnel Activists from California