Putting It Out There –
May 24, 2019 – Dr. Butts advocated honest discussion of topics like masturbation, bisexuality and gender reassignment. She hosted a short-lived radio call-in show in Washington and wrote articles for magazines like Jet and Ebony and a column, Our Sexual Health, for Essence in the late 1970s. Not everyone was receptive to her ideas at first.“When I first wrote the column, I sent a copy to one of my sisters,” Dr. Butts told The Post in 1980. “I didn’t hear anything. Finally I asked her what she thought. You know what she said? ‘Well, to tell you the truth, June, it turned my stomach. I didn’t think black women would write about things like that.’ ” By the late 1990s she had noticed some changes. “I increasingly hear African-Americans in their 20s and 30s seriously discussing their sexual relationships,” she wrote in Ebony in 1997. “These modern young Black couples should be applauded and encouraged, for they are moving in the right direction. By discussing honestly the pleasures and the pitfalls of sex — which any mature relationship is bound to encounter — they assess their attitudes not only about sex, but about values like privacy and decency.”
