Theresa Sparks

Theresa Sparks in 2010

Theresa Sparks (born April 4, 1949) is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission 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 and former CEO of Good Vibrations. She is also one of San Francisco's most famous transgender women and was a Grand Marshal in the 2008 San Francisco Pride Parade.

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."