WASHINGTON (WDCW) — The Trump administration is planning to eliminate the 988 suicide and crisis prevention hotline, which serves members of the LGBTQ+ community.
According to a leaked draft of the federal budget, the program, which launched in 2022 and is funded through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), could end as soon as Oct. 1 if it’s approved by Congress.
The Trevor Project, which offers help through 988, said the hotline has provided life-saving services to more than 1.2 million crisis contacts.
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Suicide is one of the top causes of death among young people aged 10-25.
Trevor Project CEO Jaymes Black said in a statement that ending the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline program will put the lives of LGBTQ+ youth at risk.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) warned that the deep cuts to HHS in staffing and funding will also negatively impact programs aimed at HIV and STI prevention and access to HIV PrEP medications.
“We have seen an unconscionable amount of tax on LGBTQ+ health at all levels,” said Matthew Rose, senior public policy advocate for HRC. “Nothing like this has ever existed in any other administration before, and we are here to say that we won’t stand for it. And that our people, our lives and our communities matter and that what they’re doing does nothing to advance anything they say, what they want to make happen.”
Black said regardless of federal funding, the Trevor Project will remain available 24/7 for anyone in need just as they “always have.”
