On Tuesday, June 17, a crisis counselor alerted the SGN that the nationwide 988 crisis hotline would be removing its LGBTQIA+-focused services on July 17. Queer youth face disproportionately higher rates of mental health challenges and suicidal ideation and attempts compared to their peers, and often are subjected to bullying, threats and acts of physical harm, discrimination, and conversion therapy as a result of their identities. Eliminating the 988 crisis line’s service for Queer youth will likely lead to an increase in mental health challenges and possibly death for some.

Tia Dole, PhD, the chief 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline officer at Vibrant Emotional Health, sent out a staff email on Tuesday announcing the shuttering of this service, known as the “Press 3” option.

“The Press 3 option was established as a pilot program in Fiscal Year 2022 under a government agreement with a third party,” Dole said. “The Fiscal Year 2023 Omnibus included a Congressional directive for $29.7 million to fund the specialized services. Federal funding in FY24 for the Press 3 services increased to $33 million. As of June 2025, more than $33 million in funds have been spent to support the subnetworks, fully expending the monies allocated for 988 Lifeline LGB+ subnetwork services.”

The 2022 transition from a 10-digit telephone number to “988” for suicide and crisis prevention was funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and rolled out by Vibrant.

The Trump administration claimed that the Queer-centered service line has “run out of congressionally directed funding,” according to the New York Times, although President Trump has continued to target the LGBTQIA+ community and has slashed funding for lifesaving programs, including its 2026 budget proposal to cut funding for 988’s LGBTQIA+ youth and young adult services.

“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,” Dole claimed.

The crisis counselor source who leaked Dole’s email to the SGN said a staff meeting was held just two hours prior to it being sent out, in which they were informed that all 988 contracted crisis line organizations are now subject to a hiring freeze. These organizations include Volunteers of America Western Washington, Crisis Connections, and Frontier Behavioral Health.

Jaymes Black, CEO of the Trevor Project, issued a statement in response that partially included the following:

“This is devastating, to say the least. Suicide prevention is about people, not politics. 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.

“Congress can still act to reverse this fatal decision. We are asking everyone to join the overwhelming public support for evidence-based crisis services, and urge Congress to act.”