Hi Blackstone,

Does this have any effect on your views?

Funny you should ask ;-)

Yes and no.

On the one hand, I guess, I had expected a slightly higher correlation than there turned out to be. But that being said, I have always felt this was only one of the possible factors that might affect one's sexual identity, so the results don't destroy my view ... they just don't provide any particular support for it (i.e. somewhat neutral, IMO).

It is interesting to me -- though probably not to anyone else -- that in such a small survey, we did manage to hit the "high" end of the "1 in 6 to 1 in 10" range you listed earlier. If only 1 in 18 of us had a sexual relationship with an adult as a child, THAT might have caused me to seriously question my view.

But anyway, the above is secondary. I have been thinking: what I would really like to see is a survey of those who were abused as children, and see what impact the abuse had on their sexual identity. So I did some looking around. I didn't find a survey, but I did find some very interesting forums.

MaleSurvivor.org seems to be a major site for guys dealing with childhood sexual abuse. They have lots of forums, listed here:

http://www.malesurvivor.org/board/ubbthreads.php

Among these forums is one specifically for those who identify as Gay/Bi/Trans ...

http://www.malesurvivor.org/board/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=4&page=1

... as well as a forum for those who struggle with sexual identity issues:

http://www.malesurvivor.org/board/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=31&page=1

It is this last forum that, I think, is the most relevant for our discussion.

I went through some of the posts, like "CSA effects on sexual identity" and "Confusion as child from the abuse?", and pulled out a few paragraphs for illustration:

Yes, there is no question in my mind at this point, I have had all the same feelings, I have had this discussion with gay men, and they seem to feel “I am just gay” if I am attracted to men. This is an ideology the Gay community enforces, they own homosexuality, you cross the line and your gay! I don’t believe in labels like this which are suited for people who have a political agenda, and it’s the first thing you will have to part with if you intend to get your life back on track I would imagine.

SS attraction is developed one way or another, for some people it may be their genetic disposition, for others it can be by recruitment. The way I see it, if you always knew something was wrong and had a gut feeling that your life would have been radically different if you had not been victimized then that is probably the case. I am not saying I would have turned out straight, maybe I’d be bi sexual, but what ever I would have chosen it would have been my choice. I had always felt choices were made for me in this regard, and I have always stuck by that, it is just a gut level intuition, even to this day and I am 47 yo at this point. My whole life has passed me by and I am still home alone, depressed and broken! But I am grateful I have found other people that understand me, for once in my life I feel understood. I can’t thank you enough for this post! God Bless!
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That being said...I believe (after alot of soul searching) I was born straight and my csa has pulled my into the realm of bisexuality. (I identify straight and twisted, backing away from straight with bi-sex tendencies). I can't really prove this, as my sexuality was disrupted/short curcuited between the ages of six and seven.
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When we were boys and were csa by a man
the b*s**rd set an automatic link between a man and sexual arousal
he had no right to activate
it's the nature of being violated
I call it unwanted same sex attraction
it's a battle worth fighting to resist it
and develop new asociations
I also find I have to watch where I look
looks set us guys off
its a male thing
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my understanding is my perps set off involuntary unwanted same sex attraction.
there were times when I was asked if I am gay. My answer is no as I have not embraced a gay lifestyle.
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When i was in my teens i sometimes found myself attracted to younger boys, never boys my own age, that was disgusting, but boys younger than me. Of course, i could see how messed up that idea was. For a while i really struggled with that idea, finding that i was sexually attracted to younger people. But the only reason i was feeling sexually attracted in that way is because i was given that kind of sexual pleasure at that age. I don't feel any sexual attraction to younger people anymore.
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I certainly struggle with unwanted same sex attraction as a result of being aroused during my abuse

sometimes it drives me

That's just a sampling from a few minutes of reading.

Despite the survey results, I find myself more and more convinced that, at the very least, sexual abuse (and I'd include "loving" adult-boy sex) can have an extremely damaging effect on sexual identity. Whether one wants to call it a "change of identity" or simply "identity confusion", I don't think it matters -- either way, significant damage can take place. The members of MaleSurvivors.org should be convincing proof of that.

So, I guess that's my perspective. Survey results aside, my view hasn't really changed.

Blessings,
Rainboy