Farley, head of San Francisco mayoral transgender workplace, departs
After four years overseeing the country’s first urban transgender office and advising three mayors on various concerns for the LGBTQ community of San Francisco, Clair Farley leaves to pursue other opportunities outside of the city. During the course of this month, for example, she will start advising a trans-own telemedicine provider.
38-year-old Farley didn’t rule out running for an elected office in the future during an interview with the Bay Area Reporter on Dec. 2 on her official last day with the city. A trans woman and resident of the city of Alameda, East Bay, she found that no transgender person has been elected to any state or federal legislature in California.
“I’m still open to seeing what this will be like in the future,” Farley said. “California still doesn’t have a trans elected representative. We should really be on the front lines. We’re seeing so many trans people elected across the country.”
Farley has headed the Office of Transgender Initiatives in San Francisco since 2017. Founded in June 2016 by the late Mayor Ed Lee, it hired Farley after the office’s inaugural director Theresa Sparks, a trans woman and longtime community leader, retired. Farley had worked on economic issues for the city’s LGBTQ community center.
During her tenure with the Trans Bureau, Farley has seen various city departments collect demographics on the sexual orientation and gender identity of the people they serve, campaigned for millions of dollars in city funds for numerous LGBTQ programs and at the opening the country’s first transition project helped housing trans adults. The program opened in a rented building near Chinatown last January and has since moved to a rented three-story building south of Market and is home to 14 people.
It is part of the city’s Our Trans Home Initiative, which has also provided subsidies to accommodate trans people in their apartments or houses in the city. The program is one of Farley’s proudest accomplishments as Executive Director of the Trans Office.
“The office’s vision and mission is to advance the rights of trans and LGBT people and make San Francisco a role model for the rest of the country,” Farley said. “It’s hard to do that if we can’t stay here, live here, and thrive here.”
The trans bureau has also formed an advisory group of people from the city’s trans community to make sure they are seated at the table in the town hall. Every year the office hosts a trans-advocacy week for community members to lobby various city leaders.
“It was really an honor to do this job for the city,” Farley said, adding that the departure is “really bittersweet.” But the ongoing attacks on transsexuals’ rights, especially trans teenagers, have fueled Farley’s interest in tackling tran issues on a national level.
“I look forward to stretching new muscles and continuing to grow and be inspired,” she said. “I am honored and grateful to be working with the mayor and the city to advance the efforts here on the ground.”
Serving San Francisco has been a lifetime honor!
Thank you to the Mayor of the Parish @LondonBreed and the entire SF Office of Transgender Initiatives team for the opportunity to advance trans and LGBTQ rights and services in the city and beyond.
Thanks very much! https://t.co/Vo9CV1raY7 – Clair Farley (@ClairJoyFarley) December 2, 2021
In a statement, Mayor of London called Breed Farley “a passionate advocate for San Franciscans of all backgrounds, and especially for our transgender residents. Your work has kept San Francisco at the forefront of expanding LGBTQ rights and policies. I would like to sincerely thank Clair for her commitment and guidance. She is greatly missed, but I know she will continue to be a staunch advocate for those in need. “
Gay District 8 supervisor Rafael Mandelman praised Farley as “a fantastic advocate for trans- and non-binary San Franciscans. It was a pleasure to work with her on Our Trans Home SF, the expansion of the city’s SOGI data collection, and other efforts in support of the.” LGBTQ + community. “
Interim manager named
The office is the responsibility of the mayor and the city administrator, who will employ a permanent manager. The office’s executive director will be Pau Crego, 34, a transgender and non-binary Spanish immigrant who was hired by Sparks as the office’s director of politics.
Most recently, he was Associate Director and Director of Policy and Programs. Crego, who joined Farley during the phone interview with the BAR, said he was interested in holding the position on a permanent basis.
“July next year will be our fifth year,” noted Crego. “I would be very honored to continue my full-time job as director and really advance the lessons I have gained in the office for so long.”
He has lived in San Francisco since 2008 after moving from Barcelona, Spain to study Queer Studies at the City College of San Francisco on a student visa. He was later given a green card and then became a US citizen during the Trump administration.
“I was very proud to be a trans-immigrant who got my citizenship during the Trump era. I believe it was 2019,” said Crego.
Farley told the BAR that she “strongly recommends” hiring Crego as her successor. He was “a strong leader,” she added, who worked behind the scenes on much of the bureau’s programs and political work.
“He’s such a compassionate and strategic leader,” she said. “I know he will continue to stabilize the office while we get through COVID and make sure we come out of a community location. I am very happy that you can continue the work we started together and I think that Pau goes really well with Pau. “It.”
In the coming weeks, Crego plans to meet with various LGBTQ community leaders, city officials, and agency heads who work directly in the local transgender community. The trans office currently has two other employees, Pax Ahimsa Gethen, the communications and operations manager, and Shane Zaldivar, the training and education manager. A new community engagement manager will be brought on board early next year.
Right at the top of his agenda for 2022 will be the collaboration with the municipal housing and homeless office not only on the reopening of the LGBTQ-specific Jazzie’s Place shelter, but also on plans to upgrade the space. It has been closed since the beginning of the COVID pandemic and is not expected to reopen until next year.
As the office’s point of contact for the city’s SOGI data collection efforts, Crego is also working to improve the collection of information by city authorities, particularly the health department, which has lagged behind other departments in collecting LGBTQ demographic information. He expects to work with Mandelman’s office to set up a city-wide task force focused on SOGI data to be expanded to include that of city employees and job applicants.
“City government and large institutions are slow and difficult to change,” noted Crego. “I’ve been very encouraged by some of the changes we’ve seen over the past four years and I think that will continue.”
Farley was on medical leave in September due to several long-term chronic health issues that had worsened and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. She told the BAR the situation made her “reconsider work, life, stress” and made the decision to quit her city job in order to find a better balance for all three.
“It’s so hard to do, so I’m trying to lead by example in my departure,” Farley said. “One thing I’m really looking forward to is the new opportunities I’m exploring.”
One is advising with TransClinique, a trans owned and operated company that provides telemedicine services that are trans affirmation and provides on-demand hormone replacement therapies, Farley noted. She is also looking for other jobs in the private sector and national policy work.
“As I was mastering my own healthcare challenges, I found it difficult to find trans-affirmative care. I feel inspired to keep working to move this forward, ”she said. “It’s a national service. I’ll be on the ground floor of this organization, expanding it and helping other people get better access to health care.”
Farley added, “I’m very excited to continue what we did in San Francisco and to make sure it is accessible to other communities outside of the Bay Area.”
Help keep the Bay Area Reporter going through these troubled times. To support local, independent LGBTQ journalism, you should become a BAR member.
