If you or someone you know needs help or support, trained crisis counselors are available 24/7 through The Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386, or by texting START to 678678. As of publication, the 988 Lifeline is still active and by calling or texting 988.
For an LGBTQ+ teenager in crisis with suicidal thoughts in the middle of the night, they may feel completely alone. They may sense there is no one to talk to - feel like no one they know can relate to their struggle, can help pull them back from a breaking point. But by punching three digits on their phone, 9-8-8, they can reach someone with a similar lived experience, someone who knows that every next moment and word is critical.
By proposing to defund LGBTQ+ mental health hotlines, the Trump administration has shown a disturbing willingness to gamble with young lives. And make no mistake: Lives will be lost.
According to The Trevor Project's 2024 survey, close to 40% of LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered suicide in the past year. Among transgender and nonbinary youth, that percentage increases to 46%.
These aren't just numbers or data points - these are real kids and teens facing real despair. Crisis hotlines like 988, Trevor Lifeline and Trans Lifeline are oftentimes the only thing standing between a young person and suicide. Stripping away funding from these services isn't just cruel and ignorantly dangerous. It's fatal.
LGBTQ+ youth are already at extraordinary risk. They are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual, cisgender peers. Family rejection, bullying, homelessness - these aren't hypotheticals. They are daily realities that push young people to the brink.
Crisis hotlines staffed by trained, affirming counselors create a lifeline in an otherwise hostile world. Without them, we are turning our backs on some of our most vulnerable youth during a frightening time.
The Trump administration's move to gut these vital programs betrays a dangerous truth: White House officials are willing to weaponize suffering to score political points and spread noxious misinformation. They have cloaked cruelty in bureaucratic language, arguing about "duplication of services" and "budget efficiencies."
Anyone who has sat with a sobbing, terrified LGBTQ+ teen knows the truth: Generalized crisis lines often fail these young people. They need to be heard, understood and affirmed - not subjected to ignorance or hostility.
We know what saves lives. Time and time again, research has found that LGBTQ+ youth who had access to spaces affirming their sexual orientation and gender identity attempted suicide at significantly lower rates.
Every counselor who answers a hotline call is offering more than just a voice - they are offering survival.
Imagine your child, your niece, your neighbor's kid, dialing a number in their darkest moments - only to find the line disconnected, the help vanished. Ask yourselves what type of society deliberately erases the lifelines of its most vulnerable children and teens?
A cruel one. An unforgivable one.
Unsurprisingly, there is a troubling mental health provider shortage in the United States. Numerous kids and teens are unable to access mental health services. Hospitals and community clinic waitlists have grown endless across the country, and mental health professionals are overwhelmed with high case loads.
Finding an LGBTQ+ affirming mental health provider among this shortage and youth mental health crisis is an even more daunting task.
Since 2022, when LGBTQ+ inclusive crisis services were implemented through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than 1.2 million crisis contacts have been made and met with lifesaving, LGBTQ+ inclusive crisis services.
As a licensed psychologist who has spent years working with LGBTQ+ youth, I can tell you: Every time we build a bridge to support, we save lives. Every time we burn that bridge for political theater or hateful views, we bury them.
The question isn't whether these hotlines are necessary. The question is whether we have the courage and decency to protect and expand them. If we care at all about the young people in our lives - if we care about life itself - we must fight to keep every hotline open, every counselor trained and every call answered.
Anything less may be a death sentence.
Natasha L. Poulopoulos, PhD (she/her) is a licensed clinical psychologist, advocate and speaker in Miami.