Hey mossity,
I reduced my BMI from 30 to 25 a few years ago, within 3 months. I noticed the change in how people (and girls) looked at me. It's day and night. People do judge you on your appearance, even if they don't admit it. Needless to say, that was the best thing I've done in years.
I can only recommend you not to accept the status quo and slash some weight. It's actually easy,
*provided you have the right diet*. There are tons of diets available on the internet, but low carbs diets are really the way to go, you can easily slash 5 kgs per month with a diet that doesn't make you feel hungry all the time. You could fix yourself in a matter of a few month. There is an article on GC about that (was it Ross Leon?), I highly recommend it to you. Other good principles of diet and heath are described
here.
Good luck,
Seppuku