The nation's Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, 988, shuttered the specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth this week. The move came a day after the Lifeline marked three years since its launch. During this period, it has fielded more than 16 million calls, texts and chats. Nearly 10% of those contacts have been from gay and transgender young people, according to government data.
"This is a tragic moment," says Mark Henson, vice president of government affairs and advocacy at The Trevor Project, one of several organizations that had contracts with the federal government to provide counseling services for this vulnerable population. The Trevor Project fields about half the LGBTQ+ contacts.
Data from the Youth Behavior Risk Survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, show that LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to experience persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness compared to their peers, and more likely to attempt suicide.
When these young people contact 988, they have had the option to press 3 to be connected to a counselor specifically trained to support their unique mental health needs, which are associated with discrimination and violence they often face. This service is similar to what 988 offers to veterans, who are also at a higher risk of suicide, and can access support tailored for them by pressing 1 when they contact 988. That service will be retained as 988 enters its fourth year.
"Many LGBTQ+ youth who use these services didn't know they existed until they called 988 and found out there is someone on the other end of the line that knows what they've gone through and cares deeply for them," says Henson.
Government data show that demand for this service grew steadily since it launched, from about 2,000 contacts per month in September 2022 to nearly 70,000 in recent months.
Created during Trump 1.0
The 988 Lifeline, including its services for veterans and LGBTQ+ youth, was started through bipartisan legislation signed into law by President Trump during his first term. In June, the Trump administration announced in a press release that it "will no longer silo LGB+ youth services, also known as the 'Press 3 option,' to focus on serving all help seekers."
"The Press 3 option has run out of congressionally directed funding," Danielle Bennett, a spokesperson for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, which is in charge of 988, told NPR in an email.
Congress had allocated more than $33 million for the LGBTQ+ services for 2025 and the money was spent by June 2025, according to Bennett. The amount allocated for all 988 services for this year was nearly $520 million.
"Continued funding of the Press 3 option threatened to put the entire 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in danger of massive reductions in service," Bennett wrote.
Henson, with The Trevor Project, says the congressionally allocated money was surpassed in previous years as well, and the Biden administration reallocated more money to fund the organization based on the work they provided.
"So there was the knowledge and understanding at the beginning of the year that the congressional set aside was likely to be exceeded," he says.
"I believe the [current] administration has the ability, as past administrations have, to continue funding this program," Henson added.
"When we created the 988 hotline, we knew it was important that those calls, all of them, be answered promptly," says Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who wrote the bipartisan legislation that created 988. "Somebody in a mental health crisis, somebody contemplating suicide can't be put on hold. And so the department always had the leeway to move around resources in a way to make sure that these calls were answered in a timely and responsible way."
Ending the services for LGBTQ+ youth is a political move, says Baldwin.
"They have had relentless attacks on members of the LGBTQ community, particularly transgender individuals, transgender youth," she says. "In the face of those relentless political attacks on this very vulnerable community, to then cut off a lifeline is absolutely cruel."
Other ways to reach help
The Trevor Project, which has been serving the gay and trans youth community through its own lifeline well before 988 will continue to provide that support, says Henson, even though "the loss of this federal funding means that our capacity to do so has been cut in half," he says.
But, he adds, "we worked with our counselors, we worked internally, we worked with allies to make sure that everyone knows that no matter what happens, the Trevor Project itself will continue to support the mental health of LGBTQ plus youth in crisis."
Such youth can go to https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/ to reach a trained counselor. Here are the specific ways to reach the service.
– Call 1-866-488-7386
–Text "start" to 678-678
–Or chat from a computer
"We've asked supporters and others to help fortify our crisis services so that someone will be on the line there when the LGBTQ+youth reach out," he says.
Even though the press 3 option is no longer available, anyone in crisis — including young people — call or text the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline to connect with a counselor.
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