Trump administration moves to restart LGBTQ+ suicide hotline it initially ended

The Trump administration is moving to restart the specialized LGBTQ+ option for youth who contact the 988 crisis intervention hotline – but the group that helped pioneer the idea is being shut out.

The Trevor Project, the New York-based leading non-profit for suicide prevention in LGBTQ+ young people in the US, may not be allowed to offer the service it had helped develop for the 988 Lifeline just a few years ago.

The 988 hotline, which has been dubbed the 911 for mental health emergencies, is credited with reducing teen and young adult suicide deaths. It offers specialized options for certain groups within minority communities, such as military veterans and Spanish speakers, but last July the Trump administration stopped offering the “press 3” option for LGBTQ+ youth, with a month’s notice.

The administration said it ended the service because the funding ran out. It is now working to bring it back by the end of the year because Congress directed officials to allocate $33m toward LGBTQ+ specific interventions for youth.

However, the Trevor Project might not be allowed to offer the services it developed and specializes in.

Dr Christine Yu Moutier, chief medical officer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said it “would not make sense” to keep the Trevor Project ineligible to help and it is a “longstanding, high-quality and trusted resource” to LGBTQ+ people.

The development is the latest in what has become a chaotic chapter for the service for LGBTQ+ youth, who attempt suicide at higher rates than the general population. Leaving the Trevor Project out is raising concerns about the relaunched service, especially given the Trump administration’s broader attempt to unravel protections for transgender and non-binary Americans at a time when more of them are reaching out in crisis.

“The Trump administration never should have shut down the ‘press 3’ option and put young Americans at further risk,” said Tammy Baldwin, a Democratic Wisconsin senator, and long one of the most prominent lesbian lawmakers in Washington DC. She was the first out gay person elected to the US Senate, in 2012, and she has led a bipartisan push to restore the service.

Baldwin called on Donald Trump 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”.

The lifeline’s specialized service allowed people to press 3, text “PRIDE” or use online chat to reach counselors who were specially trained to work with LGBTQ+ young people.

The umbrella of services broadly called the “press 3” option fielded 1.6m contacts while it was in operation, according to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The Trevor Project handled about half of the program’s traffic.

When it cancelled the “press 3” option, federal officials said LGBTQ+ youth could still get help through 988’s general services, but it would “no longer silo” the services, instead “to focus on serving all help seekers”, including LGBTQ+ youth.

Now, the non-profit that administers the 988 service, Vibrant Emotional Health, has called for applications to manage the return of the “press 3” lines.

But applications are limited to crisis centers that are “current and active” members of the 988 network. The Trevor Project is not currently active in the program – only because the administration cancelled the service it specialized in.

The six other crisis centers that worked on the LGBTQ+ youth program are active in the 988 network. They work with the general population as well as LGBTQ+ people. Only the Trevor Project had a specific mission to serve LGBTQ+ youth.

“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 Associated Press.

Black worries that the next iteration of 988’s LGBTQ+ youth services “may exclude transgender and non-binary youth entirely”. The organization still independently runs its own 24/7 crisis line for LGBTQ+ young people.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services did not directly respond to questions about the Trevor Project’s eligibility.