More than 100 House Democrats urged the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to spare a crisis service for LGBTQ youth from federal funding cuts, calling the plan, part of a leaked budget proposal, “ill-advised” and dangerous in a letter addressed Tuesday to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
An internal budget document first reported last month by The Washington Post would eliminate specialized services for LGBTQ youth who contact 988, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, as part of a broader Trump administration effort to slash funding and programs it says are bloating the federal government.
The proposed cuts, which need approval from Congress, would not take effect until October.
The service for LGBTQ youth has received nearly 1.3 million calls, texts and online chat messages since its launch in 2022, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In February, the program received an average of 2,100 crisis contacts daily.
“Ending this mental health support for youth in distress would devastate a vital resource for some of our nation’s most vulnerable young people,” Democrats, led by Reps. Seth Moulton (Mass.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill.), wrote in the letter to Kennedy. “This shortsighted and dangerous plan undermines 988’s ability to provide tailored support for a population with a higher risk of suicide and will have lethal consequences if enacted.”
“Surely you can agree that every American deserves the resources necessary to prevent suicide and self-injury, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” the lawmakers wrote, adding that Kennedy should scrap the plan.
Tuesday’s letter follows a similar plea from Democratic senators last week.
“Elimination of services that help keep youth alive is reckless, and we urge you to reconsider your proposal to eliminate this lifeline,” seven Democratic senators, led by Sens. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Ed Markey (Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (Ore.), wrote in their letter to Kennedy.
The lawmakers compared the program to other support services tailored to specific groups, like veterans and service members, disaster survivors, individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing and people with neurodivergence.
“This specialized intervention connects LGBTQ+ youth with specially trained crisis counselors, who can provide understanding, empathetic, and confidential support,” the senators wrote. “While we strongly disagree with the many actions taken by the Trump Administration targeting LGBTQ+ individuals, we believe that suicide prevention should be a nonpartisan issue.”
Republican Reps. Mike Lawler (N.Y.) and Young Kim (Calif.) wrote to Kennedy in a similar letter this month, calling any cuts to 988’s specialized services for LGBTQ youth “a devastating setback, stripping away a critical resource for youth already at elevated risk.”
“These are real, vulnerable young people who urgently need access to mental health care,” they wrote.
In a statement to The Hill on Tuesday, Moulton said he’s hopeful more Republicans will join Democrats in calling out the administration’s “callous plans.”
“Support for 988 has always been bipartisan,” he said.
Trump signed the bipartisan National Suicide Hotline Designation Act in October 2020, and the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline officially launched in 2022 under former President Biden’s administration. Congress increased funding for the hotline’s LGBTQ youth specialized services last year on a bipartisan basis, from $7.2 million for an initial pilot program to $33.1 million.
“Tailoring suicide prevention services to ensure they’re effective for the most at-risk groups should not be political; it is simply clinical best practice,” said Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, a national LGBTQ youth suicide prevention organization that led the pilot phase of the 988 hotline’s specialized LGBTQ service.
Now one of seven centers that make up the LGBTQ+ Youth Subnetwork, The Trevor Project responds to roughly half of 988’s calls and texts from LGBTQ youth.
A 2024 report from the group found that 39 percent of LGBTQ 13- to 24-year-olds in the U.S. considered suicide over the past year, including 46 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth. Half of LGBTQ young people who wanted mental health care said they were unable to access it.
Kennedy has not explicitly addressed concerns about the proposed cuts to the 988 hotline program for LGBTQ youth, though he has defended broader cuts at HHS, including a reduction in force estimated to affect roughly 20,000 federal workers.
“Over time, bureaucracies like HHS become wasteful and inefficient even when most of their staff are dedicated and competent civil servants,” he said in a news release in March announcing restructuring at the agency.
An HHS spokesperson did not immediately return to The Hill’s request for comment on Tuesday’s letter or other lawmakers’ calls to keep the 988 specialized LGBTQ youth program’s funding intact.
