Well, just a quickie to introduce myself - I'm Kate, 33, living in Devon, UK and I've been into BDSM for a long time and on the public scene for about a year now. I'm primarily submissive (with a hint of Dom), collared to my wonderful Master, and very active on my local scene.
BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Sadism and Masochism) means a whole raft of things to me - to a large extent it frames my identity - i feel very separate to vanillas (non-kinky people) and i'm also quite militant in my belief that all consenting adults should be free to express themselves and their sexuality in any way they choose (at the moment, some aspects of BDSM and BDSM related pornography are illegal).
The scene also gives me a purpose - I run a local munch and an online networking group which helps let people know what's going on and also allows newbies to the scene to come in safely and have a great time. Most of my friends are into the lifestyle and we have a great time socially (not just play related - meals out, cinema visits, tree climbing and rounders matches have all featured recently) which helps to create the very strong sense of community we have down here.
Last of all, BDSM is both great fun and spiritually intense - I have had my most challenging and most uplifting moments through scenes and wouldn't change what I have for the world.
Ok, well that's a brief intro - when i have more time I'll outline how i got into all this and some of my likes and dislikes - thanks for reading...