The potential defunding of 988 for LGBTQIA+ young people
If you or someone you love needs is having suicidal thoughts and/or behaviors, here are some resources (U.S):
Crisis Text Line (Text HOME to 741741)
The Trevor Project (LGBTQIA+ youth and young adults)
At Equal Deathcare, we care about your life. Which is why we decided to write about this.
Last week the federal government’s proposed budget was leaked, and a flurry of articles were written about the possible defunding of the 988 National Suicide Prevention and Crisis Hotline (and other resources) when it comes to specialized services for LGBTIQA+ youth and young adults.
For more specific information on the 988 cuts and other mental health impacts for LGBTQIA+ individuals see this article.
The fact that I’m a suicidologist and mental health practitioner aside, WHAT?!?
Let’s set the stage first. This is a proposed budget. It must pass through the House and the Senate. Okay, fine. But the message has been sent. LGBTQIA+ folks’ lives, if all the previous messaging from the recent federal executive orders and other funding cuts haven’t spoken loudly enough, are being discounted. Carved out.
I work with school districts all over the country to implement and study outcomes of suicide prevention approaches (specifically, student/peer leader approaches). When I get calls from schools stating they’ve lost a child to suicide and want to know what their options are, I ask more questions. When I learn that the child who died was Queer, I ask about the school’s culture, whether the student was bullied, and other relevant circumstances. Schools are often reluctant to answer. They don’t want suicide losses of students, but they also don’t see a problem with their culture or climate. They don’t want to advertise that bullying is a problem at their school, because, you know, they have a zero tolerance policy.
Now, the federal government is officially sanctioning bullying. The federal government is doing the bullying. LGBTQIA+ youth were already suffering from minority stress, leading to depression and suicide, and now the marginalization and discrimination is on the most public stage in the United States.
The Trevor Project, a national crisis and mental health resource for LGBTQIA+ youth has worked alongside 988 to provide resources for these young people who are suffering. They have begun a campaign to raise funds to keep the support going in light of the recent budget leak (I am not affiliated with The Trevor Project and have added the link to their campaign solely because I want to see young LGBTQIA+ people have a safe place to go for help). Zooming in on The Trevor Project’s support—their website states they have supported a quarter of a million young people in 2024 (of the 1.8 million calls to the 988 LGBTQIA+ youth speciality line) as a subcontractor with 988 with fifty million federal dollars funding the mission.
Regardless of individuals’ religious beliefs, or beliefs about gender and sex and sexuality and boys and girls and queers and people, I sincerely hope we can all agree that we don’t want people to die by suicide. We don’t want kids to believe their only way out of the fear, bullying, victimization, harassment, attacks, discrimination, and marginalization is to end their existence. Do we have some common ground here? Good.
This budget might not pass. This “carve out” might not happen. But the message has been sent. And now we need to STAND. We need to STAND for our LGBTQIA+ kids and adults LIVING. We need to STAND for all people having the equal chance to rethink taking their own lives. We need to STAND for that one conversation, that one compassionate person, who can discuss reasons for living with someone who can’t take the horrors one more day.
This message isn’t just dangerous for suicide prevention. It’s potentially dangerous for all care received by those who love and identify differently than sexual- and gender- normative folk. If LGBTQIA+ youths’ lives aren’t considered necessary to save at the federal level, what about states following suit with their local crisis lines? Will those also be defunded if they have specialty lines/services for LGBTQIA+? We’ve seen states toe the policy line set by the feds. I live in one of those states. I also work in another one of those states.
And what about health care? And mental health care? Will the feds and states begin cutting funding for any type of service related to the provision of services to sexual and gender minorites? Where will it end?
For those of you who’ve read my previous posts, you know that one of my areas of research (besides suicide prevention) is improving access to inclusive end-of-life and deathcare for LGBTQIA+ communities (hence, this website). During my three-year research study, I talked with numerous people who shared stories of discrimination by providers. One of these interviews was with a woman who served a queer boy in pediatric hospice. She wears a rainbow pin to signal she’s a safe person. She was the only one in her unit that did so. And she helped this child wrestle with his sexuality while he was also wrestling with his diagnosis. If a queer boy in hospice is sent the message by his government that his life isn’t worth funding a crisis line…
I don’t feel the need to expand on this.
Please, do not take this sitting down. Let us STAND and send a new message. They want to “streamline” and make things “efficient,” but this should NOT include further discounting the lives of our youth. Our beautiful, wonderful, creative, LGBTQIA+ kids should not be streamlined out of existence. No one should be streamlined out of existence.
There are many ways to take a stand. Call you legislators. To find out how to access your local, state, and federal representatives, visit Find and contact elected officials | USAGov. Have conversations. I do not mean getting into arguments on social media. I mean having heartfelt and common ground conversations with your family, friends, and neighbors. Heated debates do not build bridges. We need to build bridges. This means starting with an agreed-upon premise: human life, regardless of our gender or sexuality, is sacred. It’s worth fighting for.
At Equal Deathcare, LGBTQIA+ lives are our top priority. Despite our primary focus here on inclusive and affirming deathcare, we want you to know that our mission extends to all aspects of LGBTQIA+ life and living. If you are a member of the LGBTQIA+ community or a loved one or ally, we see you. We are with you. We extend our hearts and hands to you. We are fighting for you. We want you to live. We want you to THRIVE.
