Content Warning: This article mentions suicide.
When the LGBTQ+ Community Center of Darke County was still in the works, a local resident in the LGBTQ community died by suicide.
“The suicide was related to not being accepted for his identity,” said Beka Lindeman, the rural support center’s outreach coordinator. “And so that just really kind of hit hard even though it wasn't personally connected to us that this is happening right here. We gotta move.”
It motivated the southwest Ohio center to provide peer to peer support groups and to open the center on Fridays after midnight, when suicides are more likely to occur.
And they directed people in crisis to the nation’s suicide hotline, 988, where callers could press 3 to talk to counselors who were specifically trained to help LGBTQ+ youth and who often came from similar backgrounds.
The Trump administration announced the elimination of that LGBTQ-specific service last month. As of Thursday, the “Press 3” option has gone dark.
“To pull the plug on that funding, we're literally taking away somebody's lifeline,” Lindeman said.
Cuts to funding
A federal Health and Human Services spokesperson declined an interview on the changes but told the Ohio Newsroom in an email that the “Press 3” option has run out of its congressionally directed funding. They say continuing to fund it could threaten to put the entire crisis line in danger of massive reductions in service.
“SAMHSA made a critical decision that sustained the entire 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, utilizing remaining FY25 dollars to support all individuals with culturally competent crisis support,” part of the statement read.
In statements to NBC and Spectrum, a spokesperson with the White House’s Office of Budget and Management said President Trump’s budget funds the crisis line at the same level that Biden did.
“It does not, however, grant taxpayer money to a chat service where children are encouraged to embrace radical gender ideology by ‘counselors’ without consent or knowledge of their parents,” the spokesperson said, according to reporting by NBC.
A high risk group
But proponents of the “Press 3” option say it saves lives. It was established three years ago, in response to higher rates of suicide among LGBTQ+ youth.
Rhea Debussy with Equitas Health, a nonprofit LGBTQ+ healthcare organization, said that need hasn’t subsided. About 43% of LGBTQ+ youth in Ohio have seriously contemplated suicide, and about 12% have attempted suicide, according to 2024 survey by the Trevor Project.
And the suicide risk increases slightly for LGBTQ+ youth who live in rural areas, like Darke County, where behaviorial healthcare options are more limited. Lindeman said many residents travel around an hour to Dayton to get care or go to the area’s one gender-affirming physician.
“He is booked solid. All the time,” she said.
Debussy said this increased risk makes it all the more important that LGBTQ+ youth have access to a specialized hotline.
“The reality is that that [the Press 3] program saves lives, not just in rural Ohio, not just in urban Ohio, but all across the country,” she said. “I just fail to see how defunding such an important program achieves the goal of making Americans healthier.”
More than 1.4 million contacts nationwide have been directed to the specialized LGBTQ+ service, making up around 8% of the crisis line’s total intake since July 2022.
But HHS emphasizes that 988 is a resource that will continue to exist to support all Americans, regardless of their circumstances.
“It is a resource for anyone in crisis. That has not changed,” the spokesperson wrote in an email to the Ohio Newsroom.
Ohio advocates worry
Chris Steigerwald, who runs a LGBTQ+ support group in Geauga County, says removing the specialized service is still harmful.
“Even though they can still get through and talk to someone, it's more about the message of removing it: ‘We don't care about you. We don't care that you are a high-risk population,’” she said.
It’s the latest in a string of LGBTQ-related policy decisions: Ohio legislators have enacted bans on gender-affirming healthcare, limited bathroom use based on sex assigned at birth and required educators to inform parents if a child has gender identity questions.
State legislators say these changes are meant to protect children across the state, but Steigerwald says instead they’ve taken a heavy toll on LBGTQ+ youth.
She argues they need more services right now – not less.
“I definitely feel that there's going to be more kids who will either attempt suicide, or be successful at taking their life by suicide,” she said.
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
