In my experience sex becomes banal in marriage and one settles into a second-life of fantasy. It makes you wonder why God gave us such promiscuous propensities when he intended us for the alter. Maybe he introduced marriage to dampen the sex drive, thus allowing the ladies to concentrate on lamington-drives, and the men to take up fishing and football and what-not--vouchsafing them the consolation of fantsay--not to mention titillation and schadenfreude at bucks nights! I've learned recently that even chess is a masque for sexual conquest--somewhat like the modern man's "shed" for pre-moderns. One wonders what goes on in the shed, btw, while the wife's making pretzels. Ots of good old fashioned male bonding I should think, wink wink!
Frankly, I'm a bit concerned, philo, about your preoccupation with sex and marriage; this kind of enthusiasm can have a detumescent effect on poor old hubby you know, especially if a healthy fantasy life is denied him. Best to let him close his eyes and pretend he's astrude the sexy young thing next door, just quietly. I'm afraid men are incorrigible, dear, despite their pretences.
As for anal sex; I regret that I've never tried it, but I'm told on good authority that in concert with vigorous digital stimulation it's rather diverting..
Can we have some informed opinion on the topic please, anyone.. ?

Having just reviewed the article I can't see why the PC crowd want to inflict what's always been an oppressive institution on innocent, fun-loving (and pillow-biting) gays.
I think rather than legitimising gay marriage, they should de-legitimise God-sanctioned marriage. For once I'm with the libertarians; it's got nothing to do with the state or any authority what consenting adults do together, including what orifice they prefer to ply.
A rally for marriage equality only legitimises the state!
So much for indentity politics!
Now back to the anus.. Is it an erogenous zone? Surely someone's got some science on this.. or anecdotal experience ?

As Islam has more and more influence on Australian Governments to adopt Sharia Laws at least a register of Gay marriages will assist them to discover what men are practising homoswxuals. At least Chistians tolerate them in society and see their actions as a sin even as adultery. Both are sexual sins that despise the ordained order of a healthy society

Continuing on the salacious theme of anal intercourse.
It seems odd to me that most people are bashful about the minutia of the practice when it's so common, both in practice but especially in fantasy. According to Wikipedia, a "Common misconception describes anal sex as practiced almost exclusively by gay men. This misconception is dispelled by researchers, as not all gay males engage in anal sex, and anal sex is not uncommon among heterosexual relationships. Types of anal sex can also be performed as part of lesbian sexual practices".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anal_sex
Indeed I know anecdotally that it's what a great many (I'd say the vast majority) straight men crave, and not a few of their wives, or at least a great many wives tolerate it. One only has to do a brief survey of online porn to see that the anus is by far the orifice of choicest fantasy.
Which begs the question as to why anal sex is often cited as the most reprehensible aspect of homosexuality--when so many people are either doing it or wish they were! We could wonder why God gave us this predilection for sodomy?
I think the problem for puritans is that homosexuals are open and uninhibited, when they prefer to keep the practice a sinful novelty; it's just no fun if you're not being "violated".
The relevance to the article is that it's taboo topics like this that ought to be discussed openly. We humans have to come clean (so to speak) and accept the fact that we're "filthy beasts" and not the sublime beings we set ourselves up to be. But at least we don't have to be hypocrites!

Squeers,
Your research may be true, but not good for a woman's health. It is like drugs it feels good at the time but has long term health consequences.

So, Squeers, I wonder what our "professional" philosophers would have to say about all of this. Aren't they supposed to have all the answers to these "mysteries" of life? I don't suppose the rise, and rise, of sexual freedom of expression in the West could have anything to do with what appears to be a coincidental rise in the reported incidence of various forms of sexual perversion, or of conflict, aggression, drug abuse or physical abuse - paedophilia, binge drinking, dysfunctional families? But then I suppose some would argue that such social disorders were simply kept more under wraps in the past, and actual incidence may not have significantly varied. But then, what IS the reality? What is the foundational causality? What is tolerable, and what intolerable? What is the solution? Or, is no solution required?

And what accounts for racial, religious or cultural intolerance, discrimination and conflict? We know that social interraction - "Environment" - plays a large part in behavioural and personality formation. So, would it be better if Western "freedoms", affluence and largess were kept more "under wraps" rather than so much "in your face"? Or, could it be that corrosion of adherence to widely accepted standards of social, societal and/or religious mores and norms represents dangerous and unacceptable societal disintegration?

Crime, corruption, abuse, intolerance, discrimination. What price "freedom"?

All this discussion of anal sex makes one wonder if there may be more to the psyche of "man" than is immediately apparent. Could it be that "latent" homosexuality may in fact be a common facet of the human animal, albeit largely suppressed due to "conscience", to societal conditioning? May it be that the likely earliest potential method for avoiding unwanted or prohibited pregnancies, that of practising "safe", anal, sex, has its roots in the early evolutionary development of the specie? And, may it even be possible that natural evolution has resulted in an increase in the incidence of preference for, or fantasising about, this form of sexual expression?

Male/female? It's all one specie, one evolution.