Duane Long is a senior at Iowa State University. He’s triple-majoring in psychology, sociology, and philosophy. He has a girlfriend, a love of horror movies, and ambitions to become a professor of philosophy. Between his studies and working weekends at a Des Moines gas station, he stays busy. But his workload increased this year when Iowa State ruled that educational demonstrations held by his student group were illegal. Since then, he’s been spending 10 to 20 hours every week working on an appeal challenging the probation under which his club has been placed.

The club, Cuffs, is a BDSM (shorthand for bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism) organization run by and for the students of ISU. Long has been president of Cuffs for three years, and he’s been a member since the group was founded in 2000. He says that he “was probably kinky from a very young age,” but only became aware of BDSM when he got to Iowa State and met the other students who were just getting Cuffs off the ground. “Once I was made aware of the presence of the BDSM community,” he says, “I became really dedicated to learning all I could about it and becoming as involved as I could.”

Clinical Sexologist Doctor Gloria Brame argues that BDSM is a crucial part of some individuals’ sexual identity. “I believe that S&M, like homosexuality, like transexuality, like bisexuality, is hardwired,” says Brame. “It’s not what you choose to do, it’s really who you are.” Brame adds that groups like Cuffs provide a crucial support system for these people. “Without a doubt, there is and always will be a nice chunk of the population (10 to 15 percent of all adults at least) who really need this – for them, it is part of their sexual identity,” she says. “It’s important simply for the purpose of affirmation. Knowing that there are other people out there who are doing these things, and that these things can be loving, friendly, fun, and nothing like the popular misconceptions about being dangerous and dark and unsavory. It’s what you get from any affiliation with a group; it improves your self-esteem, and, more importantly in this situation, it also shows you things you’ve fantasized about and probably would be trying anyway, but how to do them safely.”

Cuffs works to educate BDSM practitioners, and the university community as a whole. They hold a meeting every week or two, including both social gatherings and informational events. The club has in the past run into some difficulties with students who have moral objections to BDSM, and with others who come to meetings simply in the hopes of finding partners for casual sex, but has also succeeded in raising the level of understanding about BDSM sexuality at ISU. “When we first got started, lots of people were making jokes about Cuffs,” Long says. “There was either a lot of misunderstanding, or people just kind of thought it was humorous. There’s still a lot of that, but I think there’s a lot more now of people saying, ‘hey, this is a valid social movement and it’s really doing a good job in increasing information and safety.’”

One person who has gained a new understanding of BDSM sexuality is Dr. William Robinson, who has been a philosophy professor at ISU for over 30 years. Robinson first learned of Cuffs two years ago, when he had Long as a student in a class on the philosophy of mind. During a discussion about pain, one of the other students brought up masochism. Robinson responded with the explanation of masochistic tendencies that he then believed. According to Long, “I think Professor Robinson had a sort of Freudian conception of guilt alleviation, a self hatred that was being acted out.” Long raised his hand and challenged Robinson’s position.

“Indeed,” says Robinson of the disagreement, “I was quite wrong… I talked to him afterwards, and he really has quite convinced me that pain is—well, I always though it was complicated—but even more complicated than I thought.” Last September, when Cuffs needed a faculty advisor, Long asked Robinson, who quickly agreed.

Since its formation, Cuffs has held two or three educational meetings each semester where club members demonstrate safe bondage and SM practices. Long says that club members believed that the university’s administration was aware of these activities. But after the student newspaper, the Iowa State Daily, printed a picture of Long demonstrating a flogging technique on fellow student Lynn Smith* during last fall’s “Basics of S&M” meeting, the university claimed it had been unaware of the demonstrations and accused Cuffs of violating the state’s assault law. ISU’s administration put Cuffs on interim suspension for two months while it investigated the issue. Then, this February, it ruled that the club had violated state law.

While the university’s ruling was based on a criminal law, no legal charges were ever filed against the club or its members. “We have not been convicted, charged, or even interviewed by anyone associated with the state law enforcement,” says Long. Instead, he says, Iowa State’s Director of Judicial Affairs Bethany Schuttinga made the decision to investigate Cuffs based on the coverage it received in the university paper. “There was no complaint filed,” he says, “but she determined on the basis of the picture in the Daily to start the investigation. She ran the investigation, determined what charges would be brought against us, and then… we got an administrative hearing, which she adjudicated.”

Schuttinga declined to comment for this story.

Lynn Smith, who has been active with Cuffs for two years and interested in BDSM since before her involvement with them, argues that the idea that she was assaulted during the demonstration is ridiculous. “I'm offended, angry, and upset that they think that I am [a victim of assault],” says Smith. “Saying that I was assaulted is, I think, also making a statement about my mental health and my personal life. I'm emotionally a very healthy person, I'm an intelligent adult, and… I happen to know what I like.”

Keith Bystrom, Associate Legal Council for the university defends the finding of assault, despite acknowledging that Smith was a volunteer. “Under Iowa law… if one person strikes another person with the intent of causing pain, that is assault, and a person cannot consent or volunteer to be struck in this manner when it’s a sadomasochistic activity,” he says. “If student organizations are participating in activities that violate state laws, then we need to address that.”

In fact, the question of whether voluntary BDSM activities fall under Iowa’s assault law is very much in dispute. With very few instances of sadomasochistic activities being prosecuted as assault, the university made its decision against Cuffs by drawing on a 1985 case in which a prostitute was tied down, raped, and beaten by her pimp, who then claimed that the sex had been consensual S/M activity. In that case, the court pointed out that activities which “create an unreasonable risk of serious injury” fall under Iowa’s assault law and then stated that, “[t]here can be little doubt that the sadomasochistic activities involved in this case expose persons to the very type of injury deemed unacceptable by the legislature.” (State v. Collier (1985)).

Cuffs argued that their case, in which participants were actually demonstrating safety techniques, clearly does not fall into the category of activities that risk serious injury.

According to Robinson, the lack of relevant precidents makes it difficult to know how a court would have ruled on the Cuffs case. “The Dean of Students’ Office would have to, in effect, anticipate the decision of a regular court,” he says, adding that university administration “should not be in the position of usurping the proper function of a court.”

At issue, according to Gloria Brame, is how laws are enforced. “Unfortunately, sexuality is still so misunderstood that enforcement can use existing laws about assault to prosecute when they want to prosecute,” she says. “So the issue really becomes a question of whether they are using good judgment in what they’re going after, and whether it’s worth going after people who really enjoy doing this and are having harmless fun for the sake of pleasure; if it’s worth prosecuting something like that when you have domestic violence rampant in America?”