Matt Dorsey (born 1964 or 1965) is an American politician and communications professional. Dorsey has served on the

San Francisco Board of Supervisors The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the board of supervisors, legislative body within the government of San Francisco, government of the San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco in the U.S. state of California. Government and polit ...

representing District 6 since his appointment by Mayor

London Breed London Nicole Breed (born August 11, 1974) is an American politician who served as the 45th mayor of San Francisco from 2018 to 2025. She was supervisor for District 5 and was president of the Board of Supervisors from 2015 to 2018. Raised in t ...

on May 9, 2022. He was elected to a full term in the November 2022 election. He previously served as head of communications for the

San Francisco Police Department The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is the Municipal police, municipal law enforcement agency of the San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco, as well as San Francisco International Airport in San Mateo County, California, San Ma ...

Career

Dorsey worked

strategic communication Strategic communication is the purposeful use of communication by an organization to reach a specific goal. Organizations like governments, corporations, Non-governmental organization, NGOs and Military, militaries seeking to communicate a concep ...

s for San Francisco City Attorney

Dennis Herrera Dennis Herrera is an American attorney, currently serving as Public Utilities Commission general manager for San Francisco. Herrera was previously City Attorney of San Francisco, known for his longtime legal advocacy for same-sex marriage in Cali ...

for 14 years. From 2020-2022, Dorsey worked for the

, where he served as Head of Strategic Communications. He defended the police department for its decision to withdraw from a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the District Attorney's office, which assigned itself as lead investigator in police use-of-force incidents.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors

On May 9, 2022, Mayor

appointed Dorsey to the

to replace outgoing District 6 supervisor

Matt Haney Matthew Craig Haney (born April 17, 1982) is an American politician from San Francisco currently serving as a member of the California State Assembly from the California's 17th State Assembly district, 17th district, covering the eastern portion ...

for the remaining few months of his term. Haney had resigned from the Board after being elected to fill a vacancy in the

California State Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature (the upper house being the California State Senate). The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento, Califor ...

. Dorsey ran for a full term in November 2022. He defeated

Honey Mahogany Honey Mahogany (born December 30, 1983) is an American activist, politician, drag performer, and singer. She first came to national attention on the fifth season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'', followed by releasing her debut EP ''Honey Love''. She wa ...

, a former aide to Haney. Dorsey was supported by GrowSF, among many other moderate Democratic organizations. District 6 was redrawn in redistricting in 2022; it no longer includes the Tenderloin, which was moved to District 5. The new District 6 has 76,000 residents and consists of

South of Market South of Market (SoMa) is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, so named due to its location south of Market Street. It contains several sub-neighborhoods including South Beach, Yerba Buena, and Rincon Hill. SoMa is home to many of ...

(SoMa),

Rincon Hill Rincon Hill ( Spanish ''Rincón'', meaning "corner") is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is one of San Francisco's many hills, and one of its original " Seven Hills". The relatively compact neighborhood is bounded by Folsom Stre ...

South Beach South Beach, also nicknamed colloquially as SoBe, is a Neighborhoods of Miami Beach, Florida, neighborhood in Miami Beach, Florida. It is located east of Miami between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The area encompasses Miami Beach south ...

, Mission Bay, Mid-Market, The Hub (near Market and Octavia) and Showplace Square (southwestern SoMa).

Public safety

Dorsey and Mayor Breed decided not to march in

San Francisco Pride The San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Celebration (formerly "International Lesbian and Gay Freedom Day", "Gay Freedom Day", and "Christopher Street West"), usually known as San Francisco Pride, is a pride parade and fe ...

in 2022 after the organizers banned police officers from marching in uniform. After Pride reached a compromise with the police, Dorsey and Breed agreed to march. As a supervisor, Dorsey has faced criticism for his support of a documentary on San Francisco's police department, which he began promoting during his time working for the department. Critics viewed the documentary as a waste of limited police resources. Dorsey criticized the city's

harm reduction Harm reduction, or harm minimization, refers to a range of intentional practices and public health policies designed to lessen the negative social and/or physical consequences associated with various human behaviors, both legal and illegal. H ...

approach to drug use, calling for mass-arrests of drug users in the

neighborhood and placing them in "compulsory

detox Detoxification or detoxication (detox for short) is the physiological or medicinal removal of toxic substances from a living organism, including the human body, which is mainly carried out by the liver. Additionally, it can refer to the period o ...

and treatment" in 2025.

Personal life

Dorsey is gay,

HIV-positive The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

and in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorsey, Matt Living people San Francisco Board of Supervisors members 21st-century California politicians California Democrats LGBTQ people from San Francisco American LGBTQ city council members American gay politicians Year of birth missing (living people) Emerson College alumni People with HIV/AIDS