Editorial: Dire results will follow end of LGBTQ+ crisis line

By The Herald Editorial Board

The Trump administration’s unkind cuts — and their consequences — only continue.

Among the latest was the announcement last month that federal funding for a suicide and crisis line dedicated for LGBTQ+ youths and young adults had been eliminated from the national 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline service, as reported this week by The Herald’s Jenna Peterson.

Since 2022, when it started as a pilot program through the nonprofit Trevor Project, the service has offered suicide and crisis counseling to those who call 988 with an option to select specially trained counselors for LGBTQ+ youths. In Washington state, it’s one of three dedicated options — Option 3 — that also offer counseling for military veterans and for the indigenous community through the Native and Strong Lifeline.

Beginning in 2023, the Everett-based Volunteers of America Western Washington’s Behavioral Health Crisis Care Center has been one of seven centers in the nation that serves LGBTQ+ youths and young adults since the program was expanded. The Everett location has staffed some of the program’s chat and text lines, a service that some find easier to communicate through. Nationwide, the LGBTQ+ service has made about 1.5 million contacts since its expansion from the pilot project.

It’s a vulnerable community in need of a dedicated service.

Increased risk for suicide: Research has found the rate of attempted suicide among LGBTQ+ youths is more than four times that among all U.S. youths, because of the societal and relationship challenges they face, including social stigma, family rejection, bullying, threats of injury and violence and increasingly limited access to gender-affirming health care in 27 states, now backed by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Yet, the agency that oversees the program, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, part of the Health and Human Services department, announced last month that it was ending the program’s funding — some $33 million in the current fiscal year — early. Additionally, the Trump administration has “zeroed out” the program in its proposed 2026 budget, an annual savings to the taxpayer about equal to what was spent on last month’s military parade in Washington, D.C.

Loss of the funding means the layoffs of trained staff across the country, including 55 in Everett, though it may try to fill a few open positions with current employees, said Levi Van Dyke, the program’s chief behavioral health officer.

Why funding was cut: The announcement from SAMHSA said the 988 service would “no longer silo LGB+ youth services,” directing that community to use the general line.

Omitting the “T” for transgender — as if to deny the existence of transgender individuals and gender dysphoria — offers a clue as to why the funding was pulled and further proof of the stigma LGBTQ+ youths face. The administration’s Office of Management and Budget, led by Russell Vought, one of the chief authors of Project 2025, removes all other doubt regarding the intent, describing the LGBTQ+ 988 service as “a chat service where children are encouraged to embrace radical gender ideology by ‘counselors’ without consent or knowledge of their parents.”

That’s not how the service is being used.

“When you’re a member of this community and this is why you’re struggling, they know that they can come to our line and not be judged,” said Ashley Senf, program manager for the LGBTQ+ youth service. “They’re coming to people who are here to support them no matter where they’re at in their life.”

What made Option 3 valuable, said Senf, who is one of those likely to be laid off, was the nonjudgmental and understanding space — in calls, chat or text — it created for those who connected to it.

“These individuals are coming somewhere where they can say these things openly and not have fear of whether it’s OK for them to be saying them,” she said. “There are times where people come to our line and being a member of the community doesn’t come up at all, but they still know that they’re coming somewhere where they’re welcomed.”

Without the dedicated service, Van Dyke said, the 988 line will continue to serve LGBTQ+ youths and also is considering how to direct those calls to employees with relevant background, training and experience.

Losing a safe space: Tyler Higgins, a Lynnwood based counselor who works with LGBTQ+ youths but is not affiliated with the VOAWW program, regretted the loss of the dedicated line.

“It’s taking away a safe place where some of these kids can talk about their issues,” he said. “Many LGBT kids can’t really get that kind of support at home safely, or don’t know if they can, which is why I think having a dedicated service like this is so important.”

It’s also a loss because it’s disconnecting those individuals from people specifically trained to talk about their concerns and needs.

“These people really have a good grasp of what that identity means,” he said.

There are other places for that youth community to turn, Higgins said; including the Trevor Project, Trans Lifeline and the LGBT National Help Center, but the elimination of 988’s Option 3, sends the wrong message.

“It’s definitely not coming from a place of wanting to help kids, in my opinion,” Higgins said.

The loss of staff at the Everett office and elsewhere will mean that wait times for calls, texts and chats to be answered will increase for all callers, warned Rena Fitzgerald the VOAWW’s executive director of behavioral health.

“If somebody is initiating a suicide attempt, they’ve already swallowed the pills, they’ve already taken whatever action, and now their wait time goes up from 11 seconds to 30 seconds, 45 seconds, two minutes or — back when there was no funding for chat and text — two hours, that is just going to absolutely cost lives,” she said.

Mending the safety net: The VOAWW staff met this week with 2nd Congressional District Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., who previously has cosponsored legislation to further strengthen and fund the 988 program.

Pointing to a long list of social safety net programs being cut or killed by the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress, Larsen had no encouragement to offer regarding any quick resumption of funding for the program.

That’s a decision left to voters in upcoming national elections.

Yet, Larsen said, it wasn’t too early to begin preparation for that opportunity.

“We need to be thinking about priorities in terms of rebuilding the social safety net for folks, as well as rebuilding access to health care and affordable food and appropriate behavioral health. That’s the only positive message I have for you,” he said. “It’s not a counseling session as much as it is a reminder: This is an opportunity for elected officials and for nonprofits to work together and build things back up again and maybe better, maybe differently.”

There still will be consequences, however.

“The pessimist in me,” VOAWW’s Fitzgerald said, “says we can’t get back the people who will die from all of this” in the meantime.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.