For the past three years, anyone dialing the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline was offered the option to “Press 3,” and be connected to counselors trained to work with LGBTQ+ youth and adults under 25.
As of July 17, that option will no longer be available.
The Trump administration, in a statement from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said the move will “focus on serving all help seekers, including those previously served through the Press 3 option.”
“This is devastating, to say the least,” said Jaymes Black, CEO of the Trevor Project. “Suicide prevention is about people, not politics.”
The Trevor Project is the leading nonprofit administering the service, which began in September 2022.
In a statement, Black said, “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.”
In its announcement, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration referred only to “LGB+” youth services, leaving out the initials that stand for transgender and queer.
“Transgender people can never, and will never, be erased,” Black wrote.
The government states anyone 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.”
Local reaction: Lives will be lost
Cesar Toledo, executive director of the D.C.-based Wanda Alston Foundation, which provides shelter and supportive services for homeless or at-risk LGBTQ+ youth told WTOP: “The latest move by HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) is not just a policy, it’s a death sentence.”
“The Trevor Project has really been a pivotal resource for our young people,” Toledo said. “Losing that specific service is going to result in lives lost.”
Toledo said the Trump administration, and state lawmakers bringing anti-LGBTQ+ bills, is “nothing short of a large attempt to really legislate the LGBTQ+ community out of existence.”
With the U.S. Supreme Court upholding Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors this week, “now, more than ever we need to step up and support the mental health needs of our LGBTQ+ youth,” Toledo said.
However, citing the AIDS epidemic and the “Lavender Scare” that led to the mass dismissal of LGBTQ+ people working within the U.S. government from the 1940s through the 1960s, Toledo said the community would “overcome.”
“We are living proof that we can live, and prosper, and seek the American dream,” Toledo said.
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