San Francisco is one of the few – if not the only – places in America with a true transgender political voice. And, that voice will hold elected officials accountable for their words and their actions in advancing acceptance and civil protections for transgenders.
The Transgender Political Caucus was formed in 1999 to give voice to the San Francisco transgender community in those critical first district elections. It wasn't a nonprofit, nor did it raise any money. It was a group of transgender leaders, from all over San Francisco, which bonded together to help elect individuals to the Board of Supervisors who would listen to our issues and concerns and support us in our fight for equal rights. 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 for a number of candidates, helped get one or two elected, familiarized most of the new supervisors-to-be about trans issues and, most of all, put a face to the label of transgender. Since that time, the TPC has been involved in very little political activity as an organization. Instead, its members have been working with current elected officials on policies directly impacting our population. It's time though, for the TPC to re-engage in the process. 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.
Following that election, then-Supervisor Mark Leno formed the Transgender Civil Rights Implementation Task Force, then-Mayor Willie Brown appointed the first transgender to the Human Rights Commission, and many elected officials started scheduling time to hear about transgender issues. The city and county of San Francisco became the first jurisdiction in the United States to eliminate discrimination by adding full transgender medical care to its health services program. The San Francisco Police Department agreed to talk about setting up protocols for dealing with transgender individuals.
Obviously, all the achievements weren't attained through the formation of the TPC. It probably had little concrete effect on the struggle that had been waged for many years in San Francisco by a large number of courageous, dedicated activists, but it finally gave the community an organized political voice that was being heard by some in elected office. There were others, though, that still refused to accept transgender people as worthy of basic human rights. During the crucial vote of the Board of Supervisors, upon which hinged the future of transgender medical care in San Francisco, a couple of supervisors were outspoken in voting no on the proposed ordinance. One of the most dramatic and hurtful events of the session, however, came when the question was called, and one of the supervisors left the legislative chambers to recess in his office. He didn't want to vote in favor of the measure but he also didn't want to mar his carefully constructed progressive image by voting against it. To his credit, Supervisor Geraldo Sandoval eventually did do the right thing and cast his vote in favor of the measure. But his reluctance to stand up for transgender rights was our failing as a community. 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.
Supervisor Sandoval once again showed his indifference toward the transgender community during confirmation hearings at the board for the new panel of police commissioners resulting from the passage of Proposition H. He attempted to block my nomination, even after I had demonstrated measurable results in the preceding year in the development of protocols for the SFPD when dealing with transgender individuals. I had been an activist on the issue of police accountability for quite some time and had the full support of those in the transgender community who work on police accountability issues. The transgender community needed an advocate on the new police commission. Additionally, I was the only representative of the entire San Francisco LGBT community being considered for appointment. If Supervisor Sandoval had been successful, there would have been no one from the queer community on the panel. In his defense, he was advocating for Latino representation on the commission. But by advocating for one minority group at the expense of another, all of our struggles for equality and human rights were weakened.
The transgender community today is more organized, better informed, and has established alliances throughout the lesbian, gay, and bisexual political community in San Francisco. But it's time to re-energize our trans-specific political organization to redefine our needs and develop specific proposals to address those needs in the future. We need to have a strong, ongoing, political advocacy group to complement other organizations such as the Transgender Law Center, which advocates for our legal and civil rights; SFTEAM, which is a program of the LGBT Community Center focusing on transgender programs; Transgender Equality California, which is a trans-specific program within Equality California, the Sacramento-based lobbying organization; and the many other groups that advocate for specific minority populations within the larger San Francisco transgender community. Elected officials who try to hide from openly supporting us, block the appointment of our leaders to important commissions, and do nothing to reach out to our community, even those communities of color, need to know that they will not get our endorsement or support. 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.
Theresa Sparks, a member of the Police Commission, is a past co-chair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club. The views expressed above are her own and do not represent any organization or agency with which she is affiliated.