Theresa Sparks

Theresa Sparks (born 1949) is president of the San Francisco Police Commission, CEO of a multimillion-dollar sex toy company, and a transgender woman.

Sourced

• "[The gay community can] fight for our rightful voice, or we can continue to ... slap one another and one day find ourselves without the electoral base to sustain the voice we already have."
  • Letter to Bay Area Reporter as cited by the San Francisco Chronicle (October 21, 2001). Senate redistricting splits Castro: Gays accuse Burton of smoothing political path for Willie Brown

The Transgender Community Needs to Reestablish Its Voice (2005)

Alice Reports (September 2005). The Transgender Community Needs to Reestablish Its Voice

• "We were fed up being harassed and strip-searched by the police, denied medical treatment, refused housing and even barred from using public bathrooms just because we were trans. We were tired of being beaten and murdered. So we went out and worked."

• "The lack of political attention to candidates and issues, history has shown us, is a sure-fire way to end up left out of the policy debates altogether."

• "We need to continue to educate our elected officials and candidates for office on who we are, what we need and why they should stand in solidarity with us."

• "Our community is organized, it’s strong, it’s paying attention and it needs to ensure a place at the political table, now and for future generations of transgender leaders."