[blueunicorn6]

A male trying to mate with another male’s anal canal is insane. A female trying to mate with another female using a rubber appliance is insane. It’ s like Aunt Louise sitting at your dinner table trying to eat by sticking a spatula in her ear and telling you that’s just her lifestyle. It might be, but it’s still insane behavior.

[Trailerpark Badass]

But of course they're not mating. Mating would imply at least a tenuous understanding of the potential consequences of the act and the lifetime of commitment and sacrifice it entails if done properly.

No, what they are doing shouldn't be dignified by use of the term mating. What they are doing is satisfying one of the basest and least contemplative biological functions, akin to taking a crap, popping a zit, or farting.

Masturbation would be a step up, as it at least retains some dignity in privacy and does not carry the malfeasant aspect of encouraging someone else's sin.