Saturday, May 12, 2007

No Big Deal

Q&A: A Prudential VP on Her Transition
A veteran of corporate America says big companies are leading the way in helping transgender social reform.
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Lorraine Ali
Newsweek
Updated: 4:11 p.m. ET May 12, 2007

May 13, 2007 - Margaret Stumpp, 54, is a vice president at Prudential Financial Inc. A 20-year veteran, she is the first openly transgender person at the firm, which has nearly 40,000 employees. Stumpp transitioned from Mark Stumpp to Maggie in February 2002, all while maintaining her position as chief investment officer for Quantitative Management Associates (a subsidiary of Prudential). When Stumpp returned to the office as Maggie, she sent this memo to her fellow employees: "From: M. Stumpp. Subject: Me." "This will be new ground for all of us," Stumpp wrote. "However, if September 11 taught us anything, it was that life is far too precious and short. Each of us must strive to be at peace with ourselves." She signed the note "Margaret." She spoke with NEWSWEEK's Lorraine Ali. . . .

Alexis Arquette on the Politics of Gender Change

Actor Alexis Arquette on the politics of gender in America.
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Lorraine Ali
Newsweek
Updated: 4:30 p.m. ET May 12, 2007

May 13, 2007 - Seventeen-year-old Alexis Arquette landed her first acting role in 1986 playing a transgender in "Last Exit To Brooklyn." Eighteen years later, she went through a real transition from man to woman. Arquette, an actress, musician and cabaret drag performer, comes from a family of actors that includes siblings Patricia, David, Richmond and Rosanna Arquette, father Lewis Arquette and grandfather Cliff Arquette. She's done almost 70 films—mostly indie, some adult—but one of her most memorable roles was as the Boy George character in 1998's "The Wedding Singer." "I did play transgender characters that were comedy roles and I feel bad about that now," says Arquette, 37. "That Boy George character, it's offensive to me now." She's now starring in a forthcoming A&E documentary about her transition, "Alexis Arquette: She's My Brother," which just debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival. . . .

Transgender pioneer rises to powerful spot

Saturday, May 12, 2007

If ever there was a real-life, rags-to-riches fairy tale, Theresa Sparks' story is it.

Only, this being San Francisco, Cinderella used to be a man and went from riches (traveling in a corporate jet) to rags (driving a taxi and sleeping on friends' couches) to prominence again by becoming a pioneering transgender activist and the chief executive officer of a multimillion-dollar sex-toy company.

It's not the way Sparks, 58, ever thought her life would turn out.

As she says in her profile on an Internet dating site, she's "just another San Francisco trans-woman with the uncanny ability to get myself into trouble."

But this week Sparks started what could be one of the most important chapters in her life when she was voted president of the San Francisco Police Commission. Her election shook up City Hall -- she beat out Mayor Gavin Newsom's pick for the job and prompted a prominent member of the board to resign abruptly.

After her election as president of one of the city's most powerful commissions, which oversees department operating rules and sets crucial policies, Newsom's administration is promising to work well with her, the transgender community is hailing her ascent as groundbreaking, and Sparks is enjoying the ride.

"Yesterday, I hit a new record in phone calls," Sparks said Friday, juggling a morning of interview requests from the media and meeting appointments with Newsom and other City Hall politicos. "I actually had to start counting them. Fifty-three!"

It's a far cry from the life she led a decade ago when, shortly after she transitioned from being a man to a woman, Sparks suffered countless rejections of job applications and was a near-homeless cabdriver.

"I went on 30 interviews, sent out 150 resumes," she said. "I couldn't find a job."

They were barriers Sparks never had to encounter as a male. . . .