"A 2001 study in the Archives of Sexual Behavior utilizes a non-clinical sample of 942 adults to compare rates of childhood molestation between heterosexuals and non-heterosexuals.
 
The authors found that 46% of homosexuals and 22% of lesbian women reported homosexual molestation in childhood. This compared to childhood homosexual molestation rates of only 7% of heterosexual men and 1% of heterosexual women.

The authors review substantial previous research which also found a link between homosexuality and a history of childhood sexual abuse. Their own research is apparently the first survey, the authors say, "that has reported substantial homosexual molestation of girls." The female victims had a mean age of 13 at the time of the same-sex abuse, while the comparable group of abused boys had a mean age of 11.

The sample was especially useful for research purposes because it did not focus on dissatisfied homosexuals in therapy; in fact, 97% of the men were participating in a gay pride celebration at the time they participated in the survey interview.

So did the molestation cause--or contribute to--the respondents' own homosexuality some years later in adulthood? The question is particularly intriguing because 68% of the male study subjects and 38% of the females did not identify as homosexual until after the molestation."

--Tomeo, M., Templer, D., Anderson, S., Kotler, D., "Comparative Data of Childhood and Adolescence Molestation in Heterosexual and Homosexual Persons." Archives of Sexual Behavior Vol. 30(3), pp. 535-541, 2001.