The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to explore ways to continue providing an option on the national 988 suicide prevention hotline tailored to LGBTQ+ callers that will be defunded by the federal government later this week.

In order to preserve the specialized hotline option, the Board directed staff to ask the agencies contracted by the county who counsel non-LGBTQ+ callers to collaborate with the specially trained phone counselors who answer calls passed through when a caller presses 3 on their phone, the option for those identifying as queer or transgender.

According to Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn and co-author of the motion, Third District Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, keeping this extra option available, perhaps by using a different method to route LGQTQ+ callers to specially trained counselors, will continue the life-saving service and give immediate over-the-phone help to a vulnerable population four times at risk of attempting suicide than non-LGBTQ youth.

The motion was approved by a unanimous 5-0 vote. But not before members of the board lashed out at the Trump Administration.

“Suicide prevention should be a nonpartisan issue. Eliminating services that help keep youth alive is reckless,” said Horvath.

The federal directive of the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration calls for eliminating specialized services that route calls made to 988, the national Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, to LGBTQ+ counselors. The agency will remove the Press 3 option that redirects callers to specially trained counselors on Thursday. About half the volume of those redirected calls are handled by phone counselors from The Trevor Project, a nonprofit, suicide-prevention organization that provides services to queer and transgender youth.

One aspect of Hahn’s motion asks for the county’s Chief Executive Office Legislative Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, in collaboration with the Department of Mental Health, to assess how removing the “Press 3” option will impact the local LGBTQ+ population and report back in 15 days. LA County is home to nearly 700,000 LGBTQ+ adults.

A second aspect asks DMH to work with the two other organizations that provide 988 counseling services, Didi Hirsch and Vibrant Emotional Health, to pursue how to continue linking LA County’s 988 hotline with Trevor Project counselors.

One suggestion is to find out if Didi Hirsh phone counselors can transfer a caller who self identifies as LGBTQ+ to Trevor Project counselors. That possible change, as well as other information on filling the LGBTQ+ gap in the crisis hotline in L.A. County and how much that may cost, will come back to the board in 30 days.

The DMH does not route any calls coming into the national hotline. However, the county department does handle  follow-up services requested by L.A. County callers. “We are hard at work to determine how we can fill the gap and not create more gaps for this vulnerable population,” said Dr. Lisa Wong, DMH director.

Hahn said eliminating the Press 3 option is much different than saying to a phone counselor their sexual preference. “It’s easier for them to press 3 than declare something publicly,” Hahn said, adding that the county may never know how many LGBTQ+ youth in a crisis decided to hang up.

SAMHSA, meanwhile, says on its website that the health agency feels the special option for LGBTQ+ youth puts them in a silo that is not appropriate. The agency said the decision was made to “no longer silo” the services and “to focus on serving all help-seekers, including those previously served through the Press 3 option.”

The change, SAMHSA said, will not harm LGBTQ+ callers.

“The Press 3 option has run out of Congressionally directed funding,” said an unnamed U.S. Health and Human Services spokesperson in an emailed response on Tuesday. The response went on to say as of June 2025, $33 million in funds have been spent on the Press 3 option. The option began in March 2023 and was part of an expansion of the 988 hotline.

The HHS response said Congress has exhausted the funds it once directed for the “LGB+ subnetwork services.”

HHS added: “Continued operation of Press 3 would have required SAMHSA to reallocate funds away from supporting the main 988 Lifeline, thereby compromising the entire system.” The decision sustained the 988 Suicide & Crisis Hotline, “utilizing remaining FY25 dollars to support all individuals with culturally competent crisis support,” concluded the HHS statement.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people aged 10 to 24. Gay, lesbian and bisexual youth are particularly vulnerable, seriously contemplating suicide at almost four times the rate of heterosexual youth, the Trevor Project reported, citing studies from researchers. About 28% of the country’s Gen Z young adult population ages 18-25 identify as queer, according to a recent report by the Public Religion Research Institute.

Higher LBGTQ+ suicidality is not because of their sexual orientation, Hahn says in the motion, but because “they are mistreated and stigmatized by others.”

“Many LGBTQ+ youth lack access to affirming spaces and deal with parental rejection,” the motion says, “which increases chances of them experiencing depression and attempting suicide.”

Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, which has an office in West Hollywood, said they were given 30 days notice before their services would be removed from the national suicide hotline.

“This is devastating, to say the least,” Black said in a statement on the group’s website. “Suicide prevention is about people, not politics. The administration’s decision to remove a bipartisan, evidence-based service that has effectively supported a high-risk group of young people through their darkest moments is incomprehensible.”

The federal government’s announcement, however, said it was removing the “LGB” option, leaving out the ‘T’ from the LGBTQ+ acronym, Black said.

President Donald Trump made anti-transgender themes central to his election campaign, including wanting to restrict access to gender-affirming care.

“President Trump’s decision to eliminate the LGBTQ+ option is not only reckless but also dangerous. We cannot allow politics to cost lives,” said Anika Venezia with Equality California, the largest statewide LGBTQ+ organization with 900,000 members.”

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) announced in June that its Center for Transyouth Health and Development, which provides gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy and surgeries, is shutting down by July 22.

The Press 3 option, via Trevor Project counselors, provided help to 1.3 million LGBTQ+ youth up to age 25, the nonprofit reported.

The Trevor Project has received signatures from more than 100 members of the entertainment community in film, music, TV, sports, stage, comedy, fashion, book publishing and the culinary arts on a letter to Trump and the U.S. Congress to keep federal funding for the LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention subnetwork. An online petition is also available.

Even without 988 support, however, the group’s specially trained counselors are still available 24/7 by calling 1-866-488-7386 or by texting START to 678678.