Leak Shows Trump Administration Could Make A Shocking Cut That Will Have Deadly Consequences
HuffPost
More than a million LGBTQ youth have turned to this service since late 2022 — and now it’s on the chopping block.
I remember reading a story late last year about a nonbinary 16-year-old in Alabama who dialed the LGBTQ crisis line instead of following through on a suicide pact he and three friends had made. The 2024 election had just been called for Donald Trump, and they took it as proof that their lives didn’t count.
Kill yourself over an election? To most adults, that sounds absurd — but most adults aren’t queer teenagers in Alabama. Teens in crisis don’t operate like policy analysts. They’re scared, they’re hurting, and their prefrontal cortexes — the part of the brain that handles impulse control and long-range thinking — are still under construction.
Pile on raging hormones, identity turmoil and the constant hum of feeling unsafe in your own skin, and a single bad headline can feel like confirmation that your worst thoughts are true.
In that fog of panic, one of them did something unbelievably brave: He picked up the phone. A counselor who understood answered, intervened, looped in the others, brought families on board — and the four kids are alive today.
That’s not a story about politics. It’s a story about survival. And it’s why immediate, specialized support matters.
