The Trump administration is cutting off federal funding for the 988 Lifeline, the national suicide crisis hotline, for LGBTQ+ youth—a direct assault on the wellbeing of one of the most vulnerable communities in the United States.
The Trevor Project received notice on Tuesday that its contract to operate the hotline will expire on July 17. Currently, callers who reach the main 988 line and select “LGBTQ+” from the menu options are directed toward specialists in LGBTQ+ mental health.
Trump previously proposed cutting off funding for the hotline in his fiscal year 2026 budget plan—a timeline that has now been accelerated to next month.
Demonization of LGBTQ+ youth has led to an increase in suicide rates. Young LGBTQ+ people are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers.
“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. The fact that this news comes to us halfway through Pride Month is callous – as is the administration’s choice to remove the ‘T’ from the acronym ‘LGBTQ+’ in their announcement. Transgender people can never, and will never, be erased,” Trevor Project CEO Jaymes Black said in a statement.
The main 988 hotline began operating in 2022 and has since received 10.8 million calls, texts, and online chat messages from the public.
Particularly among transgender teenagers, the suicide rate has increased in recent years as GOP-led legislatures have passed laws restricting transgender rights.
Republicans have made opposition to transgender rights central to the party’s appeal to base conservative voters. Leaders of the party—including Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina—have ceaselessly spread bigotry, misinformation, and smears against transgender people.
Since the start of his second term, Trump has pushed to roll back transgender rights by banning transgender military service and signing executive orders and federal rules to ban transgender children from participating in school sports.
Young LGBTQ+ people are under attack by their state and federal governments. And now, if they are driven into darkness, Trump has cut off a vital and lifesaving resource that the community increasingly depends on.
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