After a year of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, a lifeline for trans and nonbinary people faces cuts

If you are a person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe place to talk, there are hotlines and online resources that can help.

The nation’s only mental health hotline designed specifically for — and almost entirely staffed by — transgender people will pause operations for the last two weeks of the year, and will decrease its hours of operation when it returns in 2024. As corporate donations have fallen, the Trans Lifeline has faced a major budget shortfall, leaders at the nonprofit said.

According to an announcement released on its website, the Trans Lifeline will also temporarily pause its microgrant program, which distributes small funds to trans people who may need financial assistance, including for things like changing their name and gender on official documents.

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People can call the hotline, which launched in 2014, if they’re experiencing a crisis or just need to talk. Operators are all trans or nonbinary, and the hotline is unique in that operators don’t call emergency services for callers without their explicit consent.

The lifeline started this year with a $6.1 million budget, a sum that its leadership was confident would be reasonable based on gradual but sustained growth. In the past few years, the lifeline received substantial corporate donations, Bunny said.

“Word among the nonprofit campfire, and especially among queer and trans nonprofits, is that we’ve all seen our funding fall precipitously this year,” said Bunny, the Trans Lifeline’s director of operations who goes by a single name.

“Some nonprofits have had to shut down completely, others have had to do massive layoffs. It’s just a really hard landscape out there right now.”

As Republican politicians ramped up anti-trans rhetoric this year, and state legislatures passed dozens of bills limiting the rights of trans youth and adults, the organization saw corporate funding slow to a trickle, Bunny said.

Bunny declined to call out specific donors, but noted that Trans Lifeline is facing a $2.5 million deficit at the end of 2023.

Bunny estimated that the lifeline employs around 40 to 45 people, with around 200 volunteers who help, added Adam Callahan, director for the hotline program. Earlier in the year, the organization’s leadership cut $700,000 in non-personnel expenses, hoping to avoid any financial impact for employees. But ultimately staff and volunteers have been affected, with some taking voluntary furloughs or reduced working hours, and others leaving the organization.

The trans community at large will feel the effects mainly in reduction of calling hours to their hotline and a pause on distribution of microgrants.

Until Dec. 18, the hotline will run 24 hours a day, as it has since its inception. After a two-week pause, however, volunteers and employees will staff the hotline during limited hours, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST, Monday through Friday, with weekend hours expected to resume in 2024.

That the lifeline is pausing operations at this time of year is particularly difficult, said Diego Sanchez, director of advocacy, policy and partnerships at PFLAG, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

The holidays can be hard for anyone, he said, but often come with particular anxieties for transgender people.

“Frankly, this time of year is the most critical for people relative to needing to have a lifeline of some type — making sure that when they go home, if they go home, that they’re safe, and dealing with the distress if they’re not able to go home because of lack of family support,” he said.

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The Trans Lifeline has also temporarily paused its microgrants program to cut costs. Since the program began in 2017, it has distributed $1.5 million in funds, averaging around $500 per person, Bunny said. Over the past few years, that number has increased slightly, due to inflation. The money comes without strings, giving recipients the finances to change their gender markers and file paperwork to update their names, among other typical bureaucratic tasks trans people often undertake.

Bunny said that unlike corporate funding, individual donations have actually slightly increased this year.

She and Callahan pointed to that as a sign that the trans community is uniting at a time when the rights of many people are being questioned or curtailed.

“Our organization might be having a hard time right now, but just imagine what the average trans person in the United States is going through,” Bunny said.

“The demand for our services has never been higher at a time when our funding has never been more uncertain.”

Emerging research suggests that exposure to and awareness of anti-trans legislation is connected with increased levels of depression and anxiety for trans people, Ash Orr of the National Center for Transgender Equality said in a statement. “This is dangerous for a group that is already drastically more likely to experience challenges due to discrimination and social stigma.”

A study from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found that transgender adults in the U.S. are significantly more likely to have thoughts of or attempt suicide, as well as engage in self-harm, compared to cisgender Americans.

The study found that 81 percent of transgender adults had thoughts of suicide, 42 percent attempted it and 56 percent self-harmed.

Sanchez said there are more hotlines for people looking for support. PFLAG’s website has a list of options, including the Trevor Project’s hotline for LGBTQ+ youth and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender National Hotline. In 2022, the federal government also launched 9-8-8, a national hotline that offers support to anyone, including LGBTQ+ people, in mental health crises.

PFLAG also has chapters across the country, as well as virtual meetings, that can serve as resources for people looking for help, Sanchez added.

But the Trans Lifeline’s diminished capacity is troubling, he said.

“I think for trans people, having comfort to talk to another trans person is really important,” Sanchez said.

As the lifeline looks to 2024, Bunny and Callahan aren’t sure whether corporate donations will pick back up, especially given the uncertainty of an election year.

At the GOP debates, candidates “have said something about trans people to raucous applause lines — that’s going to continue. And at every role I’ve worked at during an election year, the need for services like ours tends to spike,” Callahan said.

If you are a person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe place to talk, here’s a list of hotlines and online resources for help:.

• Contact the Trevor Project’s LGBTQ+ youth hotline at 1-866-488-7386, chat with a counselor, or text “START” to 678-678. Resources are available 24/7.
• The LGBT National Hotline is available Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to midnight EST, and Saturdays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. EST. Call the hotline at 888-843-4564. The nonprofit also runs a coming out support hotline at 888-688-5428, a youth talkline at 800-246-7743, and a senior hotline at 888-234-7243.
• Call 988 to access the national Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or find help online at https://988lifeline.org/.