Hey there. I hope I can be of a little help, and at the very least offer some advice.

It is obvious from your post that you respect your girlfriend a great deal, which is a good thing, a great thing, even. But I think you nailed it when you said you're making her a glass statue. It sounds to me like you respect her to the point that you hesitate letting down your guard (strictly so to speak) enough to be comfortable with her out of fear of betraying that respect.

If I were you, I would tell her how you feel. Explain to her that you're afraid of offending her or betraying the respect you have for her. If I were a betting man, I would wager that she'd assure you better than any of us could that she'll keep that love and respect for you no matter what, as long as you do.

As far as the bedroom goes, I'd offer the same advice. Talk to her. You both need to be comfortable with doing something before it's done, so to speak. I would tell you both to tell one another (verbally, and outside of the bedroom) what you enjoy, and then go about it. Once she understands that your hesitation comes from your respect for her, I think things will go much better between the two of you.

I don't quite know the bondage culture very well, but I understand there's a sort of safety with the "safeword," no? I can assure you, if you were hurting her outside of the realm of what that entails, she would tell you. You need to trust her to do so if you're going to engage in that, but she also needs to know how you feel about it.

Also, one last thing. I haven't been on the forums long at all, perhaps all of an hour. But I have been a member for the Q/A section for about 3 months. If the people from Q/A represent the site as a whole, no one here would ever judge you for your sexuality. Not our place at all to do so.

I hope I was of some help, and I wish you my best.