The Trump administration has ordered the national suicide prevention hotline that serves LGBTQ youths shut down. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration announced that young callers to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline will no longer be able to connect with counselors trained to help people up to age 25, NBC News reports, and can instead use the line's general services. The nonprofit Trevor Project, which provided the help to young LGBTQ callers—known as the Press 3 option—under a government contract, received a stop-work order effective July 17, per the New York Times.
Saying "suicide prevention is about people, not politics," Trevor Project CEO Jaymes Black called the decision devastating and urged Congress to preserve the "bipartisan, evidence-based service." In the meantime, he assured "every LGBTQ+ young person" that the nonprofit's counselors remain ready to help around the clock. The Department of Health and Human Services eliminated the service in its 2026 budget proposed this month. The service for LGBTQ youths has received nearly 1.3 million calls, texts, and online chat messages since it began in 2022, the agency said. It averaged 2,100 crisis contacts daily in February.
The White House said funding for 988 would not change, remaining at $520 million for the year. The budget "does not, however, 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 spokesperson said, per the Hill. The announcement dropped the transgender inclusion in the acronym, saying the service was for "LGB+ youth." That's in keeping with an executive order issued by President Trump in January. (More The Trevor Project stories.)
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