Introduction Gay men and lesbians have much in common with sexual abuse survivors.
There are a number of factors that almost all gay men and lesbians face, whether or not they are sexual abuse survivors. There are also a number of factors that almost all sexual abuse survivors face, no matter what their gender or sexual orientation. Ironically, many of these factors are the same for survivors as they are for gay men and lesbians. The following is a very brief discussion of these factors that effect both sexual abuse survivors as well as gay men and lesbians. For each factor, there is a brief description of the effect on sexual abuse survivors followed by a parallel description of the effect on gay men or lesbians.