20 Facts About Theresa Sparks

Theresa Sparks is an American business executive and politician who is 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.

Theresa Sparks is a former president of the San Francisco Police Commission and former CEO of Good Vibrations.

Theresa Sparks is one of San Francisco's most famous transgender women and was a Grand Marshal in the 2008 San Francisco Pride Parade.

Theresa Sparks is a member of the board of directors of the Horizons Foundation, a community-based LGBT philanthropic organization.

Theresa Sparks was born on April 8,1949, in Kansas City, Kansas, where she grew up.

Theresa Sparks went to Kansas State University and graduated with a degree in engineering.

Theresa Sparks married her first wife in 1971 and together they had three children: two sons and a daughter.

Theresa Sparks underwent "intense therapy and an electric shock treatment" to try to suppress her femininity, before deciding at last to embrace her gender identity.

Theresa Sparks eventually acquired sporadic work as a cab driver, bank teller, and census taker to avoid becoming homeless.

Not long after her arrival in San Francisco, Theresa Sparks immersed herself in the San Francisco political landscape.

Theresa Sparks became the chair of the nascent transgender activist group, TG Rage, and in 1999 organized the very first Transgender Day of Remembrance to memorialize those transgender men and women who lost their lives to transphobic violence.

In 2000, Theresa Sparks' activism prompted Supervisor Mark Leno to create a new city work group, the Transgender Civil Rights Implementation Task Force, of which Theresa Sparks became a charter member.

Theresa Sparks used her position to lobby for a new transgender-sensitivity training program for county police officers, which the San Francisco Police Department on August 10,2001, agreed to produce.

Theresa Sparks served on the commission for two four-year terms.

Theresa Sparks 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[med]" 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.

On May 9,2007, Theresa Sparks made history yet again when she was elected president of the San Francisco Police Commission 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.

Theresa Sparks 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.

Doyle left the company in April 2005, frustrated with the constraints of the co-op business structure, and the board of Good Vibrations elected Theresa Sparks to be the new general manager.

Theresa Sparks faced competition from small independent adult entertainment websites.

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