One year after pulling the plug on the LGBTQ youth suicide hotline, the Trump Administration is bringing it back—by order of congress.
However, there is a monumental catch. Any restoration would need to comply with President Trump’s Executive Order 14168, which requires federal agencies to recognize only two genders and rejects any federal recognition of transgender identities.
The specialized services launched nationally in 2022 after Congress authorized LGBTQ+ youth support within the 988-suicide hotline system. The Trevor Project, the nation’s largest suicide prevention organization focused on LGBTQ+ youth, piloted the program and says it handled more than half of all contacts routed through the specialized services while they were operational.
According to The Trevor Project, the services helped more than 1.5 million LGBTQ+ young people before they were shut down on July 17, 2025.
“We are grateful to see preliminary indication that the 988 Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ youth specialized services may be reinstated after the program was abruptly shuttered last July,” Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, says in a statement, “However, we remain skeptical as the administration has now plainly said the lifeline must ensure compliance with President Trump’s January 2025 anti-transgender executive order.”
“Congress could not have been clearer: the Trump Administration must restore the 988 Lifeline’s ‘Press 3’ option, the specialized crisis services for LGBTQ+ youth. Yet in response to concerns I raised, the Administration acknowledged Congress directed the restoration of these lifesaving services but said it is still determining how to do so in compliance with President Trump’s executive order targeting so-called ‘gender ideology,'” Illinois representative Raja Krishnamoorthi said in a statement responding to a recent letter from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, “Executive orders cannot override federal law, and Congress already settled this question: the Trump Administration must restore these services, including for transgender young people.”
According to a 2025 Trevor Project study, 36% of LGBTQ+ young people and 40 percent of transgender and nonbinary young people seriously considered suicide in the past year, and approximately 11% reported attempting suicide.
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