Editor’s note • This article discusses suicide. If you or people you know are at risk of self-harm, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for 24-hour support. You can also reach The Trevor Project, which specializes in helping LGBTQ+ youth, by calling 1-866-488-7386, or by texting “START” to 678-678.
When late Sen. Orrin Hatch began exploring the possibility of creating a national, three-digit crisis line — an idea that came from a pair of state lawmakers — he gathered experts in a room at Salt Lake City’s East High School to discuss a statistic that had in recent years spiked among Utah teens: suicide.
A disproportionate number of youth who end their lives identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community, a reporter invited to observe the 2016 roundtable pointed out.
“Is there anything that is being done or that can be done to help that specific demographic?” the reporter asked. Hatch responded, “This is a very interesting question, and it is true: the LGBT kids are in a lot of trouble, so, who are we going to go to?”
Years later, after Hatch retired, former Rep. Chris Stewart pushed a bill to create the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline across the finish line, and it launched in 2022. And later that year, Congress appropriated tens of millions of dollars toward already-piloted specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth.
As numerous programs serving vulnerable populations have been cut since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House earlier this year, that may also be the fate of the office that coordinates tailored help on the other end of the phone for LGBTQ+ teens in crisis. Several outlets have reported that it is among the initiatives slated to be defunded under a leaked budget proposal drafted by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services.
“It’s as irresponsible as not having a burn unit, an ICU or pediatrics,” state Sen. Daniel Thatcher, of West Valley City, analogized as he criticized the potential move in an interview. “You can’t pretend that every injured person has the same needs and can just be given a Band-Aid and an aspirin.”
Thatcher, who was a Republican when he was seated next to Hatch at the East High meeting, proposed the first three-digit crisis number bill in 2014, but the provision that would create the number in Utah was stripped from the bill before it passed.
Earlier this year, Thatcher left the Republican Party to join the Forward Party. He often votes on the opposite side of his GOP colleagues on bills that impact the LGBTQ+ community, and has been ostracized by the Republican caucus, losing a committee chair position and being reassigned to sit with the Democratic minority.
“It is difficult to predict how many people will suffer because of removing pediatrics from the hospital, but it’s not zero,” Thatcher continued. “So what is the acceptable number of children that will not survive this action? As long as we get good political rhetoric out of it, how many kids is it OK to sacrifice in the name of a political campaign?”
In a separate interview, the Republican lawmaker who worked with Thatcher from the Utah House of Representatives to bring 988 to fruition emphasized that whether or not the specific services for LGBTQ+ youth continue, everyone will still have access to the crisis line. Other nonprofit resources for LGBTQ+ people, like The Trevor Project and the Trans Lifeline, will also be available, Rep. Steve Eliason, of Sandy, said.
Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, gets a better angle to photograph 600 pairs of shoes placed by Suicide Prevention staff on the Utah Capitol steps on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017, that represent the lives lost to suicide last year. Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, left, and Eliason are co-sponsors of SB37 which calls for a committee of mental health workers and physicians to create a suicide prevention hotline 24 hours a day.
“988 isn’t going anywhere,” Eliason noted. But, he continued, “I don’t think anything about this leaked proposal is out of sync with the original legislation, which was designed to create a simple to remember number.”
Eliason said shortening the list of menu options when people in crisis dial 988 could reduce the risk of a caller hanging up before they speak to someone who can help. And, he said, there are other groups with high rates of suicide that don’t have specialized services offered.
Currently, the 988 line offers separate menu choices for Spanish speakers, veterans and LGBTQ+ youth and young adults.
“There’s a lot of different populations that currently don’t have their own menu option, like Native Americans have very high rates of suicide,” Eliason said. “And I could go down the list of demographics like, nationally and in Utah, a supermajority of the people who die by suicide are Caucasian males. Again, not a separate option there.”
Stewart, who left Congress in 2023, did not answer multiple requests from The Salt Lake Tribune over email and voicemail to discuss his thoughts on the budget proposal. The retired representative now runs a lobbying firm that largely focuses on the defense industry.
In a Tuesday interview with ABC4, Stewart said, “I’ve actually worked with that community for quite a long time. I think there’s a consensus that that may not be necessary and that we just have a hotline for young people.”
The Utah LGBTQ+ advocacy group most visible in policymaking circles, however, expressed a different sentiment in a statement to The Tribune.
“We know that our community, along with others, struggles with mental health issues,” wrote Marine Lowe, the policy director for the nonprofit. “Directing resources towards suicide prevention is a worthy cause, and one that should transcend politics, political affiliations and presidential administrations. It’s both alarming and reckless that this does not appear to be the case with regard to this proposed funding cut.”
According to Utah’s most recent Student Health and Risk Prevention survey, conducted in 2023, approximately a quarter of gay and lesbian students said they had attempted suicide in the previous year — a rate triple that of their peers, and higher than in prior surveys.
An article by researchers at The Trevor Project, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour last year, concluded that state-level restrictions on transgender people — which Utah has passed for four consecutive years — led to an increase in suicide attempts among transgender young people.
