Charles Allen Moser (born 1952) is an American physician specializing in transgender health, a clinical sexologist, sex therapist, and sex educator practicing in San Francisco, California. He is the author of numerous academic publications and books in transgender health, paraphilias including BDSM, and sexual medicine. For kink communities he is known for arguing—often with Peggy Kleinplatz—that consensual paraphilias should not be treated as mental disorders simply because they are uncommon, and for guides that help sexually diverse patients navigate medical care without shame.
Early life and education
Moser obtained a Bachelor of Science in physics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a Master’s in Social Work at the University of Washington in 1975. He obtained a Ph.D. at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in 1979 and his M.D. at Hahnemann University (Drexel) in Philadelphia. He interned at Mt. Zion and St. Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco. That path—physics, social work, sexology doctorate, then medicine—produced a clinician who can speak both DSM debates and hands-on sexual medicine.
Career
Prior to obtaining his M.D. in 1991, Moser was a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in California with a private psychotherapy practice specializing in sexual issues. He was Professor and Chair of the Department of Sexual Medicine at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality; the IASHS closed in 2018. He has authored papers alone and with Peggy Kleinplatz on sex therapy and the classification of paraphilias. Moser and Kleinplatz argue that paraphilias should be removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)—a major reform argument for BDSM-friendly clinicians.
Honors and awards
Moser is an inductee of the Society of Janus Hall of Fame—San Francisco leather/BDSM recognition alongside his academic credentials. In 2009 he received the SSSS-WR “Outstanding Contributions to Sexual Science” Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality’s Western Region.
Selected works
Key publications include “Sadomasochism” in the Journal of Social Work & Human Sexuality (1989, 7(1):43–56; doi:10.1300/J291v07n01_04). With J. J. Madeson he wrote Bound to Be Free: The SM Experience (Continuum, September 1996; ISBN 978-0-8264-0889-1). Health Care Without Shame: A Handbook for the Sexually Diverse and Their Caregivers (Greenery Press, 1999; ISBN 978-1-890159-12-2) remains a practical classic for patients and providers dealing with kink and other non-mainstream sexual histories in clinical settings.
With Kleinplatz he published “Transvestic fetishism: Psychopathology or iatrogenic artifact?” in New Jersey Psychologist (52(2), 2002:16–17). Solo papers include “Autogynephilia in Women” (Journal of Homosexuality, 8 July 2009, 56(5):539–547; PMID 19591032) and “Blanchard’s Autogynephilia Theory: A Critique” (Journal of Homosexuality, 24 June 2010, 57(6):790–809; PMID 20582803). With Janet W. Hardy he co-authored Sex Disasters… And How to Survive Them (Greenery Press, December 2011; ISBN 978-0-937609-54-5). Kleinplatz and Moser’s Sadomasochism: Powerful Pleasures (Taylor & Francis, 9 January 2014; ISBN 978-1-317-76597-4) gathers substantial scholarly treatment of SM pleasure and practice.
Why Moser matters for BDSM readers
Pathologizing models still shape how some doctors, courts, and families talk about kink. Moser’s roles—physician, sexologist, therapist, educator—and Janus Hall of Fame induction make him a bridge between dungeon ethics and clinical science. Bound to Be Free, Health Care Without Shame, the Kleinplatz DSM-reform work, and Sadomasochism: Powerful Pleasures give language that treats consensual SM as health-relevant without treating it as disease by default. From SUNY physics and University of Washington social work through IASHS and Hahnemann to San Francisco practice, his CV tracks sexology that fought to keep BDSM out of the automatic mental-illness bin while still offering real care to transgender and sexually diverse people.
