I'm out of the anal game, though at times I have enjoyed topping. For the most part, I've found bottoming to be painful and degrading, with the top just slamming 200 lbs of person into me without regard to whether I was another human or a blowup doll. I tried everything; going trancelike, telling myself I was getting off on the "intimacy" (I wasn't), shifting positions, etc. I eventually had to tell my partners to just plain stop. It was misery. That, and I bled like a busted hymen every time.
In my current relationship (6 years), my partner has made it clear that he loves and misses topping. I've made it clear it ain't gonna be me (though I offered to try us being versatile a couple of times, and he's said "No way"). The more I've thought about it, the more I've come to realize that I'm happiest -- and best at -- just plain kissing, body contact and mutual jacking. I could be happy with that the rest of my life. Convincing hubby of that may not be so easy, though we're still passionately in love.
What I find increasingly fascinating and frustrating is that, for much of the straight community, anal sex defines homosexuality. When people are asked why gays shouldn't marry or why homosexuality should be criminalized, they invariably say it's because "it's not natural to take it up the ass." Well, what does that have to do with me? I'm pretty sure I'm still gay.
I hope this changes with the next generation. I remember sitting in front of the TV amazed and angry as Strom Thurmond, I believe it was, kept railing in Senate hearings against gays in the military because ho-mo-sexuals take it up the you-know-what. Anyone who protested that definition of gays was shot down by the good senator. I wanted to be a Senate witness and say to the geezer, "Last year in these United States there were 19,653,411 occurrences of penis-into-anus sex between men and women, and only 6,018,725 occurrences between men. So how does that act "define" homosexuality?"
It goes to show that when many people think of "gays", they don't think of humans; they immediately envision a particular sex act that's anathema to them.
Enough of my rant. I hear that barebacking with intact guys can be a lot more comfortable (which my partner is, but still not going there).