LGBTQ+ Crisis Intervention Hotline Relaunches Without The Trevor Project
The government is moving to restart the specialized LGBTQ+ option for youth who contact the 988 crisis intervention hotline after the Trump administration ended it. However, the group that helped pioneer and bring the option to the hotline initially, the Trevor Project, is being shut out.
The Trevor Project is known as the leading nonprofit for suicide prevention in LGBTQ+ youth, and now they may be blocked from offering their important services that they developed specifically for the 988 hotline just a few years ago, according to reports.
The 988 hotline is known as the 911 for mental health emergencies, and has greatly reduced the suicide rates in teenagers and young adults. The hotline offers specialized options for certain groups so that struggling callers can be matched with someone who can greatly help them with their specific needs.
Veterans and Spanish speakers are some of the other groups that they offer specialized services for. In July, however, the Trump administration removed the “press 3” option for LGBTQ+ youth with a month’s notice, claiming that the funding ran out.
Now, Congress has directed officials to allocate $33 million to LGBTQ+ specific interventions to help young people within the demographic.
The Trevor Project may not be allowed to offer their services that they developed and specialized in. Dr. Christine Yu Moutier, chief medical officer for the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention, stated that keeping the Trevor Project out of this relaunch “would not make sense” considering it’s a “long-standing, high-quality and trusted resource” for LGBTQ+ people.
Many groups are trying to find order in the chaos of this relaunch. Statistically speaking, LGBTQ+ youth attempt suicide at higher rates than the general population, so by leaving out the Trevor Project, who’s main objective is to bring those numbers down, is leaving many activist groups confused. This also comes at a time where the Trump Administration is trying to remove protections for transgender Americans.
Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin is one of the individuals who has led a bipartisan push to restore the service.
“The Trump administration never should have shut down the ‘press 3’ option and put young Americans at further risk.”
She also called on the president to “restore the service without needless limitations and with the most qualified, experienced people answering the phone calls and text messages from these vulnerable young people.”
Before the “press 3” option was removed, the Trevor Project was handling the majority of 988’s LGBTQ+ youth services. Individuals were also able to text “PRIDE” to the hotline, or use online chats to speak with counselors for a more private approach. The counselors on the other end of the line were specially trained to work with LGBTQ+ youth.
When it was initially in service, the “press 3” option fielded 1.6 million contacts, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The Trevor Project handled about half of that traffic.
Vibrant Emotional Health, the nonprofit that administers the 988 service, is looking for applications to manage the return of the “press 3” calls, and the applicants are limited to crisis centers that are “current and active members of the 988 network.” The Trevor Project is not currently active in the network due to the Trump administration canceling the service to begin with.
“This troubling development indicates a dangerous step toward degrading the clinical standards to serve high risk groups that the ‘press 3’ specialized services were founded on,” said Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, in a statement to the AP.
LGBTQ+ advocate groups are happy to hear that the option will be restored by the end of the year, however, there are high levels of concern over how the restoration will actually take place and operate. Advocates are also worried over the Trump administration’s anti-transgender policies and how that may impact the relaunching.
Black is worried that the next version of 988’s LGBTQ+ youth services “may exclude transgender and nonbinary youth entirely.
“While anti-LGBTQ+ politics may be altering the very purpose of this lifeline created to help save young LGBTQ+ lives, it is critical to make clear that politics has no place in suicide prevention,” Black said.
According to a 2024 analysis from the CDC, 26% of transgender and gender-questioning students attempted suicide that year, compared to 5% cisgender male and 11% cisgender female students.
The Trevor Project has, and continuously will, independently run its own 24/7 crisis hotline for LGBTQ+ youth.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.