Safe
Safe is being knowledgeable about the techniques and safety concerns involved in what you are doing, and acting in accordance with that knowledge. Safety includes the responsibility of protecting yourself and your partner from STD (sexually transmitted disease) infection including the HIV virus.

Sane
Sane is knowing the difference between fantasy and reality. Fictional accounts of SM are often distorted for fantasy sake, and are not representative of real situations and relationships.

Consensual
Consensual is respecting the limits imposed by each participant at all times. Consent is the prime ingredient of SM. One difference between rape and heterosexual intercourse is consent. One difference between violence and SM is consent. The same behaviors that might be crimes without consent are life-enhancing with consent.

Source: Wright & Moser: What is SM?

About safewords and negotiation in BDSM
- Unlike the high level of risks -- of unplanned pregnancy, STIs, regret or insufficient consent -- involved in traditional heterosex, where sex 'just happens' (Holland et al, 1998), BDSM is generally expected to involve advanced negotiation and preagreed signals (i.e., a 'safeword') to indicate slow down or stop (Califia-Rice, 2000, 2002; Miller, 1995; Wiseman, 1998). This participatory approach offers a radical alternative to relationships, sexual or otherwise, in our lives in which we do not feel empowered to negotiate, sexual or otherwise.
The Australian writer, researcher and broadcaster Kath Albury Ph. D. (picture).
Albury, K. (2002) Yes Means Yes: getting explicit about heterosex. London, Allen & Unwin.

Califia-Rice, P. (2000) Public Sex: the culture of radical sex. San Francisco, Cleis Press.
Califia-Rice, P. (2002) Sensuous Magic 2 Ed: A Guide to S/M for Adventurous Couples. San Francisco, Cleis Press.
Holland, J., C. Ramazanoglu, et al. (1998) The Male in the Head: young people, heterosexuality and power. London, Tufnell Press.
Miller, P. (1995) Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns: The Romance and Sexual Sorcery of Sadomasochism. Fairfield, CT, Mystic Rose Books.
Wiseman, J. (1998) SM 101: A Realistic Introduction. Oakland, CA, Greenery Press.

Safe SM history

Already 450 AD, Kama Sutra, written by Vatsysayana, described safe practise of several types of activity which we today can call sadomasochism; erotic striking, biting, scratching, and different accompanying cry of pain.

In 1788, the French doctor Francois Amedee Doppet, at the end of his article "Das Beisseln und sein Auswirkunauf den Geschlechtstrieb”, gave safety tips for flagellants. This is the first known SM safety text in modern time.

1972. ”The Leatherman's Handbook” by Larry Townsend; the first non-fiction book about gay male leather lifestyles, is published. Even though Townsend somewhat rigid ”Old Guard” perspective tends to deal with the mechanics more than the ethics or aesthetics of SM; this is the pioneer book that describe the psychology, communication and precautions in SM. In this way he gives the first safety rules which have been carried on for generations of gay leather men world wide.

In 1979, Fledermaus, a.k.a. Tony DeBlase, for the first time used the phrase "Safe and Sane S&M" in the gay male newsletter DungeonMaster.

August 17, 1983, in the wake of the aids epidemic, an ad-hoc committee of the American gay SM group GMSMA for the very first time used the phrase “safe, sane, consensual” in the report: "Proposed New Statement of Identity and Purpose".

October 11, 1987, thousands attended the march on Washington DC, using the banner “Safe-Sane-Consensual” for the first time. Since then "Safe, sane, and consensual" has become a world wide recognized moral ethical principle and cornerstone of SM activity.

At Nytelsesfestivalen in Grimstad, August 8-11, 2002, Kelly from SMil Norway and the Revise F65 leader Svein Skeid, agreed to use the phrase ”Sikker, sunn, samtykkende” in Norway. The slogan was later changed by SMil to :”Sunn, sikker, samtykkende”.

In the May 2005 brochure ”S&M and fetish sex between men”, with financial support from the Norwegian Directorate of Health and Social Welfare, SLM and SMia for the first time used the phrase “Sikrere, sunn, samtykkende” [Safer, sane, consensual], using a somewhat different definition of the word "Sane", which is difficult to translate to Norwegian. Instead we use the word "sunn" (healty), and defined this according to the Revise F 65 efforts to remove fetish and SM as unhealty diagnoses. Supported by the Directorate of Health and Social Welfare, the brochure was translated to English December 4, 2007.

One of several sources: Leather History Timeline

Picture from the gay and lesbian pride parade in Oslo 2008. Photo: Svein Skeid.

(Se også engelsk tekst for historikk og mer utfyllende forklaring på forskjeller mellom det norske og amerikanske mottoet).

"Sikker, sunn og samtykkende" har de siste 20 år vært et internasjonalt anerkjent moral-etisk verdigrunnlag i arbeidet for å bedre seksuelle minoriteters helse, levekår og følelse av egenverd.

"Sunn" henspeiler på sm/fetisj som en positiv, verdifull og helsebringende aktivitet som for mange er en integrert del av den personlige identitet. Erkjennelse av egen identitet, seksualitet og og kjærlighet er grunnleggende for evnen til trygg sm-praksis, motarbeide trakassering og overgrep, samt beskytte seg mot seksuelt overførbare sykdommer.

"Sikker" står for sikrere sex og trygg sm-praksis basert på kunnskapsformidling, identitetsskaping og sosialisering under ansvar, respekt og omsorg.

"Samtykkende" poengterer den grunnleggende forskjellen mellom vold/overgrep på den ene side, og avtalt samspill mellom likeverdige partnere med sammenfallende seksuell preferanse/orientering og felles forståelse og definisjon av sm, på den andre side.

Se også sss-definisjoner på nettsiden http://www.leatherleadership.org/library/whatsm.htm

Se også www.revisef65.org/feportland.html

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