It's not spooky I mention red ribbons - I have a hang glider in the attic. I never got a lot of experience but I have done winch/hill/cliff launches.
Deadstick126: you're missing out. I gave up hang gliding not because it was more dangerous than powered flight, or because it was a poor relation to it (quite the opposite in many ways) but because powered flying is more practical and less weather dependent. The thrill of a hang-glider winch launch is something I've never surpassed in my powered flying, including a session of aerobatics.
The enclosed cabin of a fixed wing aircraft is more comfortable than that of a hang glider and feels as if it gives some protection, but in fact the A-frame of a hang glider does a reasonably good job of protecting you in a minor ding, and the energy in a landing hang glider is so much lower than that of a powered aircraft that the risks aren't as different as you might suppose. You're probably more likely to get broken limbs in a hang glider, but neither will you stall and spin into a smoking crater.
It would be interesting to go back to hang gliding and compare the cultures now that I've been immersed in the fixed-wing community for a while. The barrier to entry is much lower for gliding, but I don't remember my local community being particularly any more slapdash in its approach to safety.