Patrick Califia

Patrick Califia (born 1954; formerly also known as Pat Califia and by the last name Califia-Rice) is an American writer of non-fiction essays about sexuality and of erotic fiction and poetry.

Califia is a bisexual trans man.

Prior to transitioning, Califia identified as a lesbian and wrote for many years a sex advice column for the gay men's leather magazine Drummer.

His writings explore sexuality and gender identity, and have included lesbian erotica and works about BDSM subculture.

Califia is a member of the third-wave feminism movement.

Califia was born in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1954 and assigned female at birth.

He grew up in Utah in a Latter-day Saint family, the eldest of six children.

His father was a construction worker and his mother a housewife.

Califia has said he did not have a good childhood, claiming that his father was an angry and violent man and his mother a pious woman.

Califia recalled one incident where he told his parents he wanted to be a train engineer, and they told him he couldn't because he was a girl.

He replied that he wasn't a girl.

In the 1970s, Califia's parents had him admitted to a psychiatric hospital, and he dropped out of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, due to his mental state.

He played what some observers termed a "notable role" in the Feminist Sex Wars of the 1970s/1980s.

The sides were characterized by anti-porn feminist and sex-positive feminist groups with disagreements regarding sexuality, pornography and other forms of sexual representation, prostitution, the role of trans women in the lesbian community, lesbian sexual practices, sadomasochism, and other sexual issues.

Califia rejected the "essentialist, feminist ideology—that women are better, more nurturing, more peaceful, more loving, more relationship-oriented and less raunchy in bed," instead advocating for BDSM, "the consensual integration of power, pain, domination and submission into sex."

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, many feminists were won over to Califia's views on S/M not from his arguments, but from his erotic fiction: "they read Califia-Rice's S/M fantasies, got turned on and got over it."

Califia came out as a lesbian in 1971 while attending college.

He began using the last name Califia, after the mythical female warrior Amazon.

Califia began to evade his parents, and became involved in the women's liberation and anti-war movements.

Califia began attending the University of Utah in Salt Lake City in 1971.

After getting involved in consciousness raising in the area, he moved to San Francisco in 1973, bringing an interest in sex education to work on the San Francisco Sex Information switchboard.

After moving to San Francisco he began writing for a magazine and joined a lesbian separatist movement.

In 1975 he spoke in favor of sadomasochism and found himself excluded from the lesbian feminist community.

He was not only excluded from his nuclear family by coming out as a lesbian but also lost his gay family when speaking his opinions.

Califia became increasingly involved in S/M activities not only with lesbians but also with gay men.

He co-founded the first lesbian BDSM group in the United States, Samois, in 1978.

Califia co-founded Samois, a lesbian-feminist BDSM organization based in San Francisco that existed from 1978 to 1983, and shifted his focus to the lesbian experience of BDSM.

The Samois Collective produced, with Califia's contributions, the book Coming to Power, published by Alyson Publications.

Coming To Power, according to Heather Findlay, editor-in-chief of lesbian magazine Girlfriends, was "one of the most transformative lesbian books, [foretelling] the end of a certain puritanism that had dominated the community. It was the first articulate defense of lesbian S/M, and that was the end of it."

In 1979, as a student in psychology at San Francisco State University, his research was published in the Journal of Homosexuality.

In 1980, Califia published his first book—Sapphistry: The Book of Lesbian Sexuality, a non-fiction work for lesbians which described, in a non-judgmental tone, butch-femme sexuality, and BDSM safety and practice.

Subsequently, he published work in lesbian, gay and feminist magazines, including a long-running sex advice column in The Advocate.

Califia is "one of [the] earliest champions of lesbian sadomasochistic sex" whose "work has been taught on college campuses across the country and abroad."

He has a long history of transgression, identifying as a feminist, lesbian, and transgender while also at times finding rejection from those communities "for various infractions."

In 1981, he graduated from San Francisco State University (SFSU) with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology.

He has also said he has a master's degree.

In 1989, Califia and Geoff Mains received the Steve Maidhof Award for National or International Work from the National Leather Association International.

Another book, the Lesbian S/M Safety Manual, won the 1990 Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year.

In 1992, Califia received the Woman of the Year award as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards.

Also in 1992, Califia founded the leatherwomen's quarterly Venus Infers and published "Feminism, Paedophilia, and Children's Rights" in a special women's issue of the pro-pedophile scholarly journal Paidika.