It was just a year and a half ago that I discovered GMSMA. Before I had come to GMSMA, my experience in S/M had been limited to several months of encounters at the Mineshaft. I had been amazed to learn (only because out-of-town guests wanted to see it) that there even was such a place, where men wanted to play in a way which, although it was new to me, seemed to be just what I had been seeking for years. I was thrilled by the playfulness of the men I met there and the raw sexuality of the surroundings. I had been in backrooms before, but that could not compare to the excitement and the satisfaction I was now finding. Gradually, at the not-so-tender age of thirty-one, I had begun to learn that domination and submission, and even physical pain itself, were vehicles for pleasure.

It was at the Mineshaft that I first came across some of GMSMA's literature during the summer of 1984. However, I did not actually attend a meeting until the following November. I wasn't in any hurry to attend some organization's sit-in-folding-chairs meeting, even if the organization did consist of men who were into S/M. After all, I thought, why should I spend a couple of hours talking about it rather than doing it? Eventually, though, prompted by curiosity, I went to a meeting. It would be a good way, I thought, to meet more S/M men; and the more I met, the better my chances for scenes with variety and intensity. In addition, though, I wanted just to talk with S/M men. I wanted to learn more about the Scene and whether I would be comfortable in it. I wanted to hear more about certain scenes before getting into them, and to learn more about certain toys before using them.

Discovering S/M had been like escaping the Earth's gravitational pull; GMSMA was like landing on a new planet. It's hard to remember, a year later, what it was like that first time when I entered the room and did not know a single one of those many sexually vibrant and powerful men. I am sure that even at the first meeting I realized that GMSMA would indeed provide what I sought: both