Trump administration moves to restart LGBTQ+ suicide hotline it initially ended | Trump administration
The Trump administration is moving to relaunch a special LGBTQ+ option for young people who contact the 988 crisis response line, but the group that pioneered the idea is being excluded.
The Trevor Project, the leading New York-based nonprofit for suicide prevention in LGBTQ+ youth in the U.S., may not be allowed to offer the service it helped develop for the 988 Lifeline just a few years ago.
The 988 hotline, also called 911, for mental health emergencies is known to reduce suicide deaths of teens and young adults. It offers special options for certain groups within minority communities, such as veterans and Spanish speakers, but last July the Trump administration stopped offering the “press 3” option for LGBTQ+ youth with a month’s notice.
Management said it was discontinuing the service due to running out of funding. Now he’s working to bring it back by the end of the year because Congress has directed officials to allocate $33 million for LGBTQ+-specific interventions for youth.
However, Trevor Project may not be allowed to offer the services it has developed and specialized in.
Chief medical officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Dr. Christine Yu Moutier said it “wouldn’t make sense” to hold the Trevor Project ineligible for help and that it was a “long-standing, high-quality and trusted resource” for LGBTQ+ people.
This development is the latest in what has been a chaotic chapter in services for LGBTQ+ youth, who attempt suicide at higher rates than the general population. Leaving out the Trevor Project raises concerns about the relaunched service, especially given the Trump administration’s broader push to dismantle protections for transgender and gender non-binary Americans.
“The Trump administration should never have shut down ‘press 3’ and put young Americans at further risk,” said Democratic Wisconsin senator Tammy Baldwin, a leading lesbian legislator in Washington, D.C. He was the first openly gay person elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012 and led a bipartisan effort to restore service.
Baldwin called on Donald Trump to restart the service “without unnecessary restrictions and with the most qualified, experienced people responding to phone calls and text messages from these vulnerable young people.”
The lifeline’s dedicated service allowed people to press 3, text “PRIDE” or use online chat to reach counselors specially trained to work with LGBTQ+ youth.
The umbrella of services, commonly referred to as the “press 3” option, involved 1.6 million contacts while operational, according to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The Trevor Project handled approximately half of the program’s traffic.
When it rescinded the “press 3” option, federal officials said LGBTQ+ youth could still get help through 988’s general services, but it would “no longer gobble up” the services, instead “focusing on serving all help seekers,” including LGBTQ+ youth.
Now Vibrant Emotional Health, the non-profit that operates the 988 service, is calling for applications to manage the return of “press 3” lines.
However, applications are limited to crisis centers that are “existing and active” members of the 988 network. The Trevor Project is not currently active on the schedule; The only reason for this is that the management canceled the service in which it specialized.
Six other crisis centers working with the LGBTQ+ youth program are also active on the 988 network. They work with LGBTQ+ people as well as the general population. Only The Trevor Project had a specific mission to serve LGBTQ+ youth.
“This troubling development marks a dangerous step towards lowering clinical standards to serve the high-risk groups on which ‘press 3’ specialist services are built,” Jaymes Black, CEO of the Trevor Project, said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Black is concerned that the next version of 988’s LGBTQ+ youth services “could completely exclude transgender and non-binary youth.” The organization still operates its own independent 24/7 crisis line for LGBTQ+ youth.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services did not directly respond to questions about the eligibility of Project Trevor.
