SF Mayor's Trans Adviser: 'Exciting Time'

Four months into her latest post, Theresa Sparks, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee's senior adviser for transgender initiatives, said it's "the most exciting time in the trans community I've certainly been involved in" in her 20 years of work in the field.

Sparks, a transgender woman who was once president of the local Police Commission and then served for years as executive director of the city's Human Rights Commission, has had plenty to work on since Lee named her to the job in June.

Even before she took her current job, likely making her the first person in the country with such a role, she'd been working with the sheriff's department to give transgender inmates the ability to move from segregated housing into the general jail population. Sparks has also been helping to bring all gender bathrooms to the city, another issue in which San Francisco has taken a lead role.

Last year, before he lost his re-election bid to current Sheriff Vicki Hennessy, former sheriff Ross Mirkarimi announced he planned to stop classifying transgender inmates who have not had surgery according to their birth sex, meaning trans inmates could be housed with cisgender inmates.

Several months ago, the agency moved female trans inmates, who make up the majority of the county jails' trans population, from the men's facility to the jail where women are held. However, the trans inmates still haven't been mixed in with the general population.

The draft policy for the sheriff's department is "essentially done," Sparks said, and is being reviewed by the agency's unions. The main issues being ironed out are details related to housing and strip searches.

Neither Sparks nor Hennessy had a timeline for when the housing transition would be complete, but Sparks said, "I'm very optimistic about getting this thing done relatively soon, hopefully by the end of the year."

Most of the concepts are resolved, but training and discussion with the unions have to be finished first, Sparks said.

"We don't want to throw any deputies into the mix that haven't been trained," Sparks said.

Several weeks ago, there was a "train the trainers session" with sheriff's deputies who are educating hundreds of other deputies in the agency, Sparks said.

Topics ranged from search techniques, pronoun usage, and defining terms like "sex" and "gender identity."

Sex has typically referred to what someone's been assigned at birth, while gender identity refers to "someone's sense of self," Sparks said.

"Gender identity will be the predominate element used in housing and treating transgender people" with respect, Sparks said.

She also pointed to the emerging use of gender-neutral pronouns such as "they" and "them," along with terms such as "pansexual."

One challenge is "How do you develop policy when the culture and the vocabulary are continually changing ...?" Spark said.

In addition to her efforts with the sheriff's department, Sparks is also working with the police department so that its policies and orders related to transgender people mirror those of the sheriff's department.

The goal is to have "consistency" with pronoun usage and other areas "from the time the initial interaction occurs through the housing portion," she said.

"Both departments are making an honest effort to use the proper pronouns," and when they don't know, they ask, Sparks said of the sheriff's and police agencies.

Deputies' questions have included what they should do when there aren't enough female staff available to search a female transgender inmate during a given shift.

Sparks said she'll next be working with judges and the juvenile and adult probation departments "to make sure that from beginning to end" people are managed "by the same policies." One challenge there is that the juvenile and adult probation agencies transport and search people differently.

She said that she and Hennessy have had "a good relationship." Hennessy's put this on the "front burner" including by working on weekends on the issue and has been "really, really supportive," said Sparks.

Hennessy said that Sparks' new role will help with implementing these changes.

"I've always admired Theresa.," Hennessy said during a recent interview. "She's very, very thoughtful, she's very smart, and she's very helpful."

One area in which Sparks has been of assistance is the training that the sheriff's department has been doing.

"She's got a really good way of being pragmatic but also being sensitive and also being understanding," Hennessy said.

Like Sparks, Hennessy expressed optimism about the progress being made on housing transgender inmates. Among other improvements, trans inmates who've been moved are getting access to programs in County Jail 2, where women are housed, that they were not getting in County Jail 4, the men's facility.

"We're committed to doing this, and Theresa is committed to helping us do this," Hennessy said. "I'm very happy to have her as a resource."

However, some issues, such as strip search procedures, remain.

"In our policy, we will take their preference into consideration ...," Hennessy said. "If we don't have housing for them on the women's side, we can't put them there."

She said there isn't a lot of empty space on that side. Additionally, she said, "If I have somebody who is a predator" and "happens to be a transgender woman," that inmate may not be able to be housed with cis women prisoners.

The Transgender Law Center and the Transgender, Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project, two nonprofits that have been working with the sheriff's department on housing issues, were approached for comment for this story but didn't provide statements.

Bathrooms

One of the biggest challenges Sparks has faced is related to single stall, all-gender bathrooms. Governor Jerry Brown recently signed into law Assemblyman Phil Ting's (D-San Francisco) Assembly Bill 1732, which requires single-user toilet facilities in any business establishment, place of public accommodation, or state or local government agency needs to be identified as all-gender toilet facilities beginning March 1. San Francisco's Board of Supervisors passed a similar bathroom ordinance, authored by gay Supervisor David Campos, in April.

"I didn't realize getting bathroom signage would be quite so difficult," Sparks said.

Officials in San Francisco will be using "all gender restroom" signage since there are "so many different genders," but the signs also need to include people who are disabled and people with assisted care, such as families with kids.

On top of her other work, Sparks said that by the end of the year, she wants to have a meeting with all of the major transgender service providers, including community-based organizations and city agencies, to talk about issues like employment, violence prevention, education, and health care. One of the aims will be identifying gaps in service delivery.

One thing that's already known is that "it's been difficult for transgender individuals who've had surgeries" and are living in transitional housing such as a shelter or treatment centers to get a private spot "for post-surgery care," she said.

Currently, Sparks is working out of a small office at 25 Van Ness Avenue, a building near City Hall that houses the HRC and other city agencies. She hopes to have her office established at the LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street, by around the first of the year. The building is currently undergoing a major renovation.

Sparks plans to hire at least one policy analyst and someone to do clerical work.

The office will include space for volunteers and interns, as well as room for meeting with community members to talk about policy. The office won't be designed for walk-ins, but people can make appointments.

"I want to get as many community people involved in these policy discussions" as possible, she said, adding, "I want this to be completely transparent and get as much feedback as we can."

Another function Sparks sees for her office is working to prepare younger transgender people for leadership. It's important to "train the next generation of leaders," and "start turning responsibility over to them," she said.

Sparks said with the creation of her position, San Francisco is on the "cutting edge," and it's important to develop policies and "make sure these policies are available to other municipalities."

"I've gotten no resistance at all" from people in San Francisco on her efforts, Sparks said, and people have been "extremely supportive."

She said she usually meets with Steve Kawa, Lee's gay chief of staff, and City Administrator Naomi Kelly "every other week for a status meeting."

Sparks said that the mayor's office has asked her to examine best practices to address bullying targeting LGBT youth. She said statistics from 2015 show "a lot of suicides" are connected with people's parents not accepting them and cyber bullying. She plans to work with the school district on the issue.

She also said that Lee has created an organization to collaborate with the U.S. Conference of Mayors called "Mayors Against Discrimination" that's being led by San Francisco and is addressing LGBT issues but will also tackle race and ethnicity.

Sparks said she was recently in Europe and has been talking to people in Amsterdam about the "Rainbow Cities Network."

"Hopefully we will be a hub for the United States" to "connect major cities in Europe and the U.S. around these policies."

Sparks may be reached at [email protected]