Advocate Adviser

by Patrick Califia

Book by Califia, Pat

Genres: Queer

237 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Patrick Califia, who formerly wrote under the names Pat Califia and Patrick Califia-Rice, is a writer of nonfiction (on men, gender, transgender identity, and sexuality) and fiction (erotica, poetry, and short stories).

Reviews

[Aiden · Rating 3 out of 5]

5 stars because it's an amazing slice of history and it's so exciting to be able to find and read a copy. 3 stars because it's hard to read because it's a collection of old advice columns and there were sections that are so outdated they made me cringe. It's interesting to think about how advice that's cringe-worthy now might have been considered radical at the time. Very, very cool to read something so queer and sex-positive from that era.

[Katy]

Wow this was such an amazing peek into queer culture of the 90s! Gave me all sorts of longing feelings for queer print culture with way less internet!!!

[Joan]

Pat, now Patrick, Califia: "arguably the most influential S/M commentator and pornographer working today. In the past Califia described herself as, "a dyke, a feminist, a pornographer, a sadomasochist, a poet, a storyteller, an omnivore, a pagan, a social critic, a sex educator, and an activist." Pat is now Patrick, a fully-transitioned FTM transsexual.

Beginning in 1981, Pat wrote an advice column for the Advocate. This is a selection of them. They deal with relationship issues, fetishes, dealing with family, AIDS and other STDs, growing old, etc. Pat was a great choice for this job - he is knowledgeable, non-judgmental, and caring.

A couple of caveats, however. She too frequently assumes that relationship/sexual problems are the result of childhood sexual abuse (even when the letter writer gave no indication of such an issue). More important, this book was written in 1991. That means that the information relating to AIDS, while valid in the most important aspect (USE A CONDOM!!!! PRACTICE SAFE SEX!!!), is not necessarily accurate. (She uses the term ARC, for example.) We know more now, about transmission, seroconversion, treatment options are different, etc.

There is a list of resources at the back - obviously many of these are outdated, by technology (like the section on Computer BBS), and of course many of the organizations will be defunct, or moved, or have different phone numbers.

But if you're on this site, you have internet access. Use it.

[Freyja Vanadis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative Q&A taken from issues of the gay magazine The Advocate 20-30 years ago, from Pat Califia's advice column. It's obvious how dated this book is though: to see the way she writes about computer modems and BBS services made me chuckle.