Susie Sexpert on Donahue

Phil DonahueIn my metaphorical book, Susie Sexpert ranks right up there with Dan Savage as a sex writer worth taking a look at. In her book, Sexual Reality, Susie recalls  the time she was talked into going onto the Phil Donahue show to talk about the differences between having sex with a man and having sex a woman. A few weeks before the show, Susie gave her conditions. No religious debates and no ambush. Only straight talk about Susie's absolute favorite topic in the world, sex.

The Phil Donahue show ambushed Susie. Right from the start, she rode in the limo with a couple from the Exodus organization, whose sole purpose was converting gay men and women into  Christians at that time. 

Instead of jumping out of the limo and fleeing for her life, Susie walked into the studio with the couple where she was warned not to speak explicitly about rough sex, and told that nipple talk was specifically not on the agenda because "Phil doesn't like it." While it was apparently news to Susie that Phil was too ashamed to have his guests talk about nipples on his show, she was undeterred and still went on air.

Susie being Susie, she rocked the house. She was not converted into either Christianity or heterosexuality, but not because the young missionaries didn't try. According to this interview, the cute , young couple repeatedly called Susie a heathen while the supposedly sensitive Donahue tried to focus on the possiblity that Susie's sexuality was possibly determined by child abuse.

Susie turned the tables on the unsuspecting young missionary couple from Exodus. She asked the young wife what she found attractive about her "previously gay" husband. As Susie recalls it, Anna replied, "Jim is very sensitive and very artistic, but that has nothing to do with his former gay lifestyle, nothing at all."

Jim did not get off the hook either and his response was a little more forward than his wife's. When asked if his wife appreciated him more because he was gay, Jim said, "Yes, she does, because just like a woman I know what it is like to be entered, not only the physical part, but on an emotional level as well." According to Susie's account, the men in the audience looked like they wanted to kill Jim and the women had significantly different ideas about Jim. 

In this incredibly interesting interview with Susie, she talks more in depth about the Phil Donahue show appearance.