Trump Administration Orders the 988 Lifeline's LGBTQ+ Youth Service Shut Down After 1.3 Million Contacts

In mid-June 2025 the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration notified The Trevor Project that the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline's specialized LGBTQ+ youth service — reached by pressing 3 — would be terminated effective July 17, 2025. The Trevor Project said it received the notice on June 18 and announced it publicly the same week. The service had handled more than 1.3 million contacts since launching in 2022, with The Trevor Project alone answering roughly half the network's volume, including more than 231,000 crisis contacts in 2024. SAMHSA later framed the change as no longer siloing services and instead serving all help seekers through the general line.

The subprogram was created by Congress-directed appropriations and staffed by counselors trained for a population with sharply elevated suicide risk; ending it removes specialized routing without an announced replacement capacity plan.

The Trevor Project's chief executive, Jaymes Black, called the decision 'devastating,' saying 'suicide prevention is about people, not politics.' The Press 3 option was switched off on July 17, 2025.