The Trump administration will shut down the national LGBTQ youth suicide lifeline in 30 days.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration announced Tuesday that the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline will no longer utilize its LGBTQ youth services, also known as the “Press 3 option,” effective July 17.
The agency said it will “no longer silo LGB+ youth services” — notably removing the “T” representing the trans community in the acronym — to “focus on serving all help seekers, including those previously served through the Press 3 option.”
The Press 3 option rolled out as a pilot program in 2022 in a government contract with the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ people. Those in need of help would call 988 and be given the option to “press 3” to connect with counselors trained to assist people up to the age of 25.
The Trevor Project was initially the sole provider of the youth specialized service, and is now one of seven centers that make up the LGBTQ Youth Subnetwork.
It came about under legislation signed by President Donald Trump during his first term that acknowledged disproportionately high suicide rates among LGBTQ youth.
SAMHSA insisted that impacted youth can still receive help, but from the general hotline number.
“Everyone who contacts the 988 Lifeline will continue to receive access to skilled, caring, culturally competent crisis counselors who can help with suicidal, substance misuse, or mental health crises, or any other kind of emotional distress. Anyone who calls the Lifeline will continue to receive compassion and help,” the agency said.
Trevor Project CEO Jaymes Black called the decision “devastating,” adding, “suicide prevention is about people, not politics.”
He noted that the program has provided life-saving services to more than 1.3 million LGBTQ young people.
“The administration’s decision to remove a bipartisan, evidence-based service that has effectively supported a high-risk group of young people through their darkest moments is incomprehensible. The fact that this news comes to us halfway through Pride Month is callous — as is the administration’s choice to remove the ‘T’ from the acronym ‘LGBTQ+’ in their announcement. Transgender people can never, and will never, be erased,” Black said in a statement.
He called upon Congress to reverse the decision — and assured the public that the Trevor Project will continue to help those in crisis.
“I want every LGBTQ+ young person to know that you are worthy, you are loved, and you belong — despite this heartbreaking news. The Trevor Project’s crisis counselors are here for you 24/7, just as we always have been, to help you navigate anything you might be feeling right now,” Black said.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ proposed budget for 2026 eliminated the hotline’s youth specialized services program earlier this month.
When asked for comment about that proposed cut, Rachel Cauley, a spokesperson for the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, told NBC News the proposed budget wouldn’t “grant taxpayer money to a chat service where children are encouraged to embrace radical gender ideology by ‘counselors’ without consent or knowledge of their parents.”
That term, “radical gender ideology,” is one that has been adopted by conservatives and the Trump administration to describe transgender people and the trans rights movement, which it considers harmful to children.