Specialized counseling services for LGBTQ+ youth will return to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by the end of the year, the Trump administration confirmed last month. But young people looking to “press 3” for that support may encounter an altered experience, as federal health officials want to ensure the services comply with President Trump’s executive order last year that essentially denies the existence of transgender and nonbinary identities.
The Trump administration shuttered the LGBTQ+ youth specialty services last July, but soon after, a congressional appropriations bill directed $33.1 million toward reinstating the line. The law indicates that services should support all LGBTQ+ youth.
But the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention group that has operated its own LGBTQ+ youth hotline in some form since 1998 and responded to about half the calls to 988’s specialized line from its inception in 2022, may not be part of the restored service due to a technicality in the call for applications, the Associated Press recently reported.
Nevertheless, the Trevor Project submitted a proposal to provide the restored services, according to a statement provided to STAT from Mark Henson, the group’s vice president of advocacy and government affairs. It has not received direct confirmation of its eligibility, but “regardless of the decision, we remain deeply committed to the importance of specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth, and are eager to support anyone providing crisis services on 988 or otherwise,” Henson wrote.
