Neither do anuses, pardon my directness.

One important thing about homophobia is that it's rooted in misogyny, in a profound disrespect for woman-ness and a horror of men who are perceived as "acting like women."

Of course, to a homophobe, the ultimate betrayal of manhood is allowing oneself to be penetrated "like a woman."

In response, some of the cruder and more fanciful homophobic tropes center around anal sex. One howler of a story that I've heard ever since I was a kid is that gay men end up having to wear diapers in their old age because our anuses wear out from penetration.

This is absurd and has no basis in reality, but it gets a lot of air time. In the past two weeks, I've seen it pop up in Russia and Uganda to support the need for anti-gay laws in those countries. But telling a howler of a story like that is simply an appeal to raw homophobia.

It's also strong reinforcement that men who penetrate are admirable, and that people who get penetrated are not.

Misogyny.