The federal government says it will maintain funding for a national suicide prevention hotline, but no longer pay for specialized support for L.G.B.T.Q. people.
The Trump administration has instructed the national suicide prevention hotline to stop offering specialized support to L.G.B.T.Q. callers next month, saying those callers can rely on the hotline’s general services.
The Trevor Project, a nonprofit that has provided that specialized support to L.G.B.T.Q. callers to the 988 suicide prevention hotline, said Wednesday that it had received a stop-work order, effective July 17, and provided a copy of the order to The New York Times.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that oversees the hotline, confirmed the decision.
The option for L.G.B.T.Q. support was established in 2022 based on a recognition that gay and transgender people experience distinct mental health issues — often driven by family rejection and societal discrimination — and have disproportionately high suicide rates.
In a statement that referred to “L.G.B.+ youth services” — omitting the “T” for transgender — SAMHSA said the decision was based on a desire to “no longer silo” those services and to “focus on serving all help seekers.” A spokesman for the White House responded to an inquiry by referring to that statement, and a spokeswoman for H.H.S. said that the L.G.B.T.Q. section had “run out of congressionally directed funding” and that continuing to fund it would jeopardize the entire hotline.
However, the White House Office of Management and Budget has previously described the hotline’s L.G.B.T.Q. section as “a chat service where children are encouraged to embrace radical gender ideology by ‘counselors’ without consent or knowledge of their parents.” That language reflects the Trump administration’s broader efforts to eliminate services for and legal recognition of transgender people.
