Sexual abuse of boys and men is a public health problem that has received little attention from clinical scholars and researchers. Given unique pathways for development of and recovery from trauma-related emotional distress, sexual abuse survivors who identify as men may need distinct interventions to promote engagement in formal mental health care and assist in psychiatric symptom reduction. Sexual minority male individuals (ie, people who are not heterosexual or straight [eg, gay, bisexual, pansexual, queer]) and gender minority male individuals (ie, people who are not cisgender; anyone who identifies as transgender or gender divergent) are at higher rates of sexual victimization than heterosexual or cisgender male individuals.
