The Trump administration is considering changes to the national suicide hotline’s specialized service for LGBTQ-identifying youth, which routes children to transgender activist organizations, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.
The LGBTQ hotline, which routes young callers to organizations that specialize in “affirming” counseling, has received over a million contacts since it was launched in 2022, federal data shows. In those years, it placed access to transgender activists at children’s fingertips, enabling youth who text “PRIDE” to 988 or press option “3” after dialing the main hotline to connect with a counselor who will talk to them about gender identity — often without parental knowledge.
“HHS is reviewing the 988 Hotline and working to comply with President Trump’s Executive Order Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to The Federal Government,” a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson told the DCNF. “Additionally, we are working to ensure that HHS better serves the American people at the highest and most efficient standard, as it relates to those experiencing a suicidal crisis or emotional distress.”