Patrick Califia (born 1954 near Corpus Christi, Texas) is a writer about women's sexuality and of erotic fiction. He is also a bisexual transman and prolific author of essays and poetry.

Califia was born female, into a Mormon family. She came out as a lesbian in 1971 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and changed her name to Pat Califia, taking the surname Califia after the mythical Amazon. After getting involved in consciousness-raising work in the area she bought herself a one-way ticket to San Francisco in 1973, bringing an interest in sex education to work on the San Francisco Sex Information switchboard.

Her first book was Sapphistry, a non-fiction work that described butch-femme sexuality and BDSM safety and practice without being judgmental. Further work was published in lesbian, gay and feminist magazines. Research work she did while taking a degree in psychology at San Francisco State University was published in the Journal of Homosexuality in 1979.

With the founding of SAMOIS, Califia's interests moved into the lesbian experience of BDSM and contributions to the book Coming to Power . In 1996 Califia was co-editor (with Robin Sweeney ) of the sequel The Second Coming: A Leatherdyke Reader.

During this period Califia was also writing on queer theory and gender identity, coming to terms with personal issues. It was at this time that Califia made the decision to transition to a male gender role. Califia undertook testosterone hormone therapy and changed his name to Patrick, and he and his partner at the time both hypenated their names to Califia-Rice and Rice-Califia respectively.

Since the 1990s, however, Patrick has suffered with fibromyalgia, which has caused nerve damage in his legs and hands and reduced his ability to type or write. He is currently (2004) seeking to set up in private practice as a therapist (he is a licensed marriage and family therapist in the state of California). He continues to publish his work and attend leather community events. His most recent book was Mortal Companion, a vampire novel.

It is believed that he is the author whose works are most often seized by Canadian Customs.

Booklist

Non-Fiction

• Sapphistry: The book of lesbian sexuality
• Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism
• Public Sex (essays)
• Sensuous Magic
• Speaking Sex to Power (essays)
• Forbidden Passages: Writings Banned in Canada (editor, with Janine Fuller)

Fiction

• Macho Sluts (short stories)
• No Mercy
• Doc and Fluff
• Doing it for Daddy (editor)
• Melting Point (short stories)
• The Second Coming (editor)

See also

• List of transgender-related topics
• Transman
• List of transgendered people

External links

• Patrick Califia's website
• Publisher's website page about Patrick Califia
• GLBTQ article on Patrick Califia
• An interview with Patrick Califia
• Sex with the Imperfect Stranger - article on Gwen Araujo by Patrick Califia