The 988 National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline of the U.S. Health & Human Services Department is set to stop providing tailored support options for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults on July 17.
The general 988 Lifeline offers free mental health support via call, text, or chat. It is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a subsidiary of the US Health and Human Services Agency (HHS).
Currently, LGBTQ young people can select option 3 from a call menu in order to connect with counsellors. After the changes, the remaining 988 Lifeline services would "focus on serving all help seekers", including those who previously chose to access LGBTQ youth services, SAMHSA said.
But the hotline would "no longer silo LGB+ youth services," SAMHSA wrote in a statement, omitting the "T" and "Q" that refers to transgender and queer people in the LGBTQ acronym.
Given the Trump-DOGE regime's emphasis not on devotion to the mission of one's agency, on expertise, and on competence — but rather on fealty to Generalissimo Trump and a fierce commitment to banishing "wokeness" in all its forms — LGB+ youth cannot expect a sympathetic ear or helpful advice from whatever de-silofied government employees remain at the other end of the phone.
I have to suspect that T and Q youth are guaranteed not to.
If you don't believe me, believe Rachel Cauley, a spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget, who described the present LGBTQ+ lifeline to NBC News as "a chat service where children are encouraged to embrace radical gender ideology by 'counselors' without consent or knowledge of their parents."
I don't have any scientific studies to back this up, but I'll bet there is a significant subset of LGBTQ+ youth considering suicide for whom one or both parents are at least as LGBTQ-hostile as Ms. Cauley is.
Here are ways to reach privately funded LGBTQ youth suicide prevention hotlines:
- Trevor Project LGBTQ Crisis Hotline: 1-866-488-7386 or text START to 678-678
- Trans Lifeline (run for and by trans people): 1-877-565-8860 Monday-Friday, 8:00 am to 4:00 pm Central Time
Please note that reports of Canada making its hotline available to U.S. citizens are false.
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