Trump to Shut Down LGBTQ Youth Suicide Hotline in July
The Trump administration will shut down the national LGBTQ youth suicide lifeline in 30 days, NBC News confirms.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration announced Tuesday (June 18) that the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline will no longer use its LGBTQ youth services, also known as the “Press 3 option,” as of July 17.
The agency said it will “no longer silo LGB+ youth services,” removing the “T” representing the trans community, to “focus on serving all help seekers, including those previously served through the Press 3 option.”
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The Press 3 option rolled out as a pilot program in 2022 in a government contract with the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ people.
For help, people could call 988 and be given the option to “press 3” to connect with counselors trained to assist people up to the age of 25.
It came about under legislation signed by Trump during his first term that acknowledged disproportionately high suicide rates among LGBTQ youth.
SAMHSA says youth can still receive help, but from the general hotline number.
“Everyone who contacts the 988 Lifeline will continue to receive access to skilled, caring, culturally competent crisis counselors who can help with suicidal, substance misuse, or mental health crises, or any other kind of emotional distress. Anyone who calls the Lifeline will continue to receive compassion and help,” the agency said.
Trevor Project CEO Jaymes Black said the decision is “devastating,” adding, “suicide prevention is about people, not politics.”
“The administration’s decision to remove a bipartisan, evidence-based service that has effectively supported a high-risk group of young people through their darkest moments is incomprehensible. The fact that this news comes to us halfway through Pride Month is callous — as is the administration’s choice to remove the ‘T’ from the acronym ‘LGBTQ+’ in their announcement. Transgender people can never, and will never, be erased,” the CEO went on to say.
“I want every LGBTQ+ young person to know that you are worthy, you are loved, and you belong — despite this heartbreaking news. The Trevor Project’s crisis counselors are here for you 24/7, just as we always have been, to help you navigate anything you might be feeling right now,” they added.
Rachel Cauley, a spokesperson for the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, told NBC News the proposed budget wouldn’t “grant taxpayer money to a chat service where children are encouraged to embrace radical gender ideology by ‘counselors’ without consent or knowledge of their parents.”
A late night host recently mocked Trump for seemingly dozing off at this event which cost taxpayers millions of dollars.