Office of Transgender Initiatives Year in Review: 2021

The year 2021 has come to a close, and I am grateful for the brilliant community and City partners that have helped us accomplish some major wins for trans and LGBTQ+ communities in San Francisco this past year.

Here are some of my favorites:

Trans Advocacy Week

Screenshot of a Zoom meeting with 21 participants, including Mayor London Breed (center, wearing red).

In April we organized a successful Trans Advocacy Week, during which our Trans Advisory Committee met with Mayor London Breed and the Board of Supervisors to advocate for much-needed City resources for trans and non-binary communities. Thanks to the Mayor’s support, the City expanded funding for trans and LGBTQ+ services, including $1 million/year for a two-year Trans Guaranteed Income pilot program that will launch in early 2022.

Transgender History Month

Mayor London Breed holds the signed declaration for Trans History Month, surrounded by City officials and special guests on the Mayor’s Balcony of San Francisco City Hall. Photo by Marcel Pardo Ariza.

In collaboration with the Transgender District and the Mayor, we proclaimed the month of August Transgender History Month in San Francisco. The declaration honored the 55th anniversary of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riots, which occurred in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District in August 1966, preceding the better-known 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City.

Trans 101 Module

Blue, pink, and white stripes of the trans pride flag with text “Transgender 101 — Strengthen your Commitment to Inclusion”, and the logos of the Office of Transgender Initiatives and Department of Human Resources.

To meet the increased demand for our trans inclusion trainings for City employees, in November we launched a “Transgender 101” online module for the ~35,000 City and County employees who provide crucial services to San Franciscans. Alongside the module we launched a new training website, which includes information on our live online training, as well as resources for further learning about trans and non-binary people and issues.

Trans Data Initiatives

In 2021 we launched and advanced multiple data initiatives focused on tracking and understanding LGBTQ+ communities, including our Trans Data Mapping project and the collection of sexual orientation and gender identity data for City and County employees starting January 1, 2022.

I’m especially proud of these accomplishments given that we were also doing our best to support communities during a global pandemic, and that as a team we went through some internal challenges. In addition to adapting to hybrid in-person/remote work, our small team went through some major staffing changes in a short amount of time.

On December 2, our outgoing Executive Director Clair Farley moved onto the next chapter of her career after four years leading the Office of Transgender Initiatives. Many of our biggest accomplishments since our office’s founding were made possible thanks to her vision and passion, and we were sad to see her go!

We look forward to what 2022 has in store for us!

In community,

Pau Crego (he/him/his) and the OTI team
Acting Director, Office of Transgender Initiatives

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