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LGBTQ+ suicide hotline goes dark [1]
['Daily Kos Staff']
Date: 2025-07-17
On Thursday, specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth calling the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline are going dark.
The 988 hotline, which was federally established by President Donald Trump during his first term, will still exist, but it will no longer offer a specific dial option for LGBTQ+ youth to feel safe and understood in a time of crisis.
“Our country’s federal government—including the very agency in charge of protecting our mental health—cut a literal lifeline that has provided 1.5 million LGBTQ+ youth with suicide prevention services,” Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, said in a statement released Thursday. “I am heartbroken that this administration has decided to say, loudly and clearly, that they believe some young people’s lives are not worth saving.”
A protester outside the Kansas Statehouse holds a sign after a rally for transgender rights in March 2023, in Topeka, Kansas.
LGBTQ+ youth are at a significantly increased suicide risk, according to a 2023 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study found that 41% of LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the previous 12 months, and 20% attempted it.
In April, the Trump administration’s budget proposed cutting all funding to 988’s specialized service for LGBTQ+ youth. And last month, the administration followed through on this. The Trevor Project, which worked with the government on the specialized service, operates its own separate hotline.
Since taking office in January, Trump and his underlings have worked overtime in their assault on the LGBTQ+ community. Government websites were scrubbed of LGBTQ+ terms. And transgender members of the military were pushed out of their positions on the argument that they were not mentally fit to serve.
And despite Trump being the one who signed the 2020 law acknowledging that LGBTQ+ youth face a disproportionately high suicide rate, the president’s efforts toward erasure and pain have been successful.
For LGBTQ+ youth seeking help, they are still able to call into The Trevor Project’s 24/7 hotline at 1-866-488-7386, via chat at TheTrevorProject.org/Get-Help, or by texting START to 678678.
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