The Trump administration is once again drawing criticism during LGBTQ Pride Month—this time for defunding the LGBTQ youth-specific branch of the national 988 suicide hotline, which has supported 1.3 million LGBTQ+ young people since its launch in 2022.

Known as “988 Press 3 Option,” the LGBTQ crisis line has been operated by The Trevor Project—a nonprofit serving LGBTQ+ youth in crisis—since 1998. As the nation’s first suicide prevention helpline dedicated to LGBTQ youth, it will continue to operate independently, but it is being removed from the federal government’s 988 system.

The “Press 3 Option” support for LGBTQ+ callers “was established in 2022 based on a recognition that gay and transgender people experience distinct mental health issues — often driven by family rejection and societal discrimination — and have disproportionately high suicide rates,” The New York Times reported.

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“On July 17, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline will no longer silo LGB+ youth services, also known as the ‘Press 3 option,’ to focus on serving all help seekers, including those previously served through the Press 3 option,” read a statement Tuesday from the federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

CBS News reports it is “unclear if staff for the specialized option 3 care line will be cut or moved to the general 988 line.”

“This means that, in 30 short days, this program that has provided life-saving services to more than 1.3 million LGBTQ+ young people will no longer be available for those who need it,” said Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, in a statement Wednesday. “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.”

Black called the decision to announce the shutdown during Pride Month “callous,” and blasted the federal government for removing the “T” in LGBT, writing: “Transgender people can never, and will never, be erased.”

But as The New York Time3s also reported, “the White House Office of Management and Budget has previously described the hotline’s L.G.B.T.Q. section as ‘a chat service where children are encouraged to embrace radical gender ideology by ‘counselors’ without consent or knowledge of their parents.’ That language reflects the Trump administration’s broader efforts to eliminate services for and legal recognition of transgender people.”

Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the un-naming of the USNS Harvey Milk, a U.S. Navy ship named for the assassinated veteran and LGBTQ activist who was the first openly-gay man to be elected to public office in California. The decision to announce the plan during LGBTQ Pride Month reportedly was intentional.

RELATED: Pride Month Purge: Pentagon Chief Defends Renaming USNS Harvey Milk and Trans Ban

Critics are blasting the decision to end federal funding for the LGBTQ+ option for the 988 suicide prevention hotline.

“The ‘pro-life’ party is shutting down suicide hotlines,” wrote podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen.

“When folks are in crisis, this admin chooses cruelty over care—every time. But this is the party of ‘family values,’ right?” observed U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX).

“The LGBTQ+ community faces so much discrimination, isolation, and violence that makes them over 4x as likely to die by suicide. Trump’s decision to end the federal LGBTQ+ suicide hotline is absolutely devastating and it’s the opposite of ‘pro-life’,” noted U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA).

“The Trump Administration is wholly pro-death,” declared The Atlantic’s Dr. Norman Ornstein, a political scientist. “As they fan the flames of virulent homophobia and trans-hatred, they cut out the LGBT suicide hotline. People will die. For them, it is a feature, not a bug.”

CBS News cited these support options:

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here.

The Trevor Project’s trained crisis counselors are available 24/7 at 1-866-488-7386, via chat at TheTrevorProject.org/Get-Help, or by texting START to 678678.

For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@nami.org.

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Image via Reuters

Thousands of Americans die each year from asbestos-related diseases, including mesothelioma—a toll that prompted the Biden administration to ban the carcinogenic substance, long used in roofing materials and auto parts. Now, President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency is moving to reconsider that ban, despite years of advocacy aimed at preventing such deaths.

In the five months that Trump has been in office,”his administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been on a deregulation spree,” Fast Company reports. “So far, the agency’s leaders have expressed interest in rolling back regulations around ‘forever chemicals,’ or PFAS; reversing a cornerstone finding that greenhouse gases are dangerous for public health; and weakening enforcement of coal ash regulations.”

“This latest move by Administrator Lee Zeldin and EPA is yet another alarming signal that this administration is operating without limits as they dole out favors to polluter lobbyists without regard for the health and well-being of people living in the US,” Michelle Roos, executive director of the nonprofit organization Environmental Protection Network, told the Associated Press

READ MORE: Hegseth Sidelines Juneteenth and Its Military History

The EPA’s proposed 30-month delay to examine the ban would “move the nation backward, once again putting lives at risk,” Linda Reinstein, president and co-founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, told The New York Times.

The majority of asbestos imported into the U.S. comes from Brazil, but about a quarter comes directly from Russia, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Russia is the top global producer of asbestos.

Asbestos originally from Russia also enters the U.S. indirectly through other sources.

“Trump’s support for asbestos'” Ars Technica adds, “has been welcomed in Russia, a primary asbestos supplier to the US. In 2018, a Russian asbestos company began marketing asbestos with Trump’s face and a seal reading ‘Approved by Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States.'”

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In 2019, The New York Times pointed to this photo on a Facebook page showing pallets of asbestos stamped with a seal that featured President Trump’s face and the alleged endorsement—a “public relations stunt.”

“Strangely enough,” Fast Company also reported, “Trump himself wrote in his 1997 book Art of the Comeback that he believed asbestos bans were a conspiracy ‘led by the mob, because it was often mob-related companies that would do the asbestos removal.'”

Critics are blasting the decision to reconsider the asbestos ban.

“The Trump administration isn’t just going after ‘regulations,’ they’re going after your health. Who benefits from bringing back cancer-causing asbestos? Russia,” noted U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-NM).

“It’s another pro-Putin policy from Trump. Russia is a major asbestos producer,” wrote Courier Newsroom correspondent Allan Piper.

“What is this—Make Asbestos Great Again?” snarked former U.S. Secretary of State and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

The Atlantic’s Dr. Norman Ornstein wrote simply, “Pro-death.”

See the social media post above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Feckless or Complicit’: Hegseth Blasted in Heated Hearing Over Social Media Influencer

Image via Reuters

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, whose work includes scrubbing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) from the U.S. military, is reportedly taking a “passive approach” to the federal holiday of Juneteenth, the day symbolizing the end of slavery. The U.S. military played a pivotal role in actions that led to the holiday.

President Joe Biden, in 2021, signed legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday, and in years since then the Defense Department has marked the occasion. That year, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a statement that read:

“Juneteenth holds particular significance for the United States military since it marks the date in 1865—more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation—on which Union soldiers, led by Army Major General Gordon Granger, issued the famous General Order No. 3, informing the people of Texas that ‘all slaves are free.'”

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In 2023, U.S. Under Secretary of Defense Gil Cisneros published a memo on the Pentagon’s observance of Juneteenth.

“In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation confirming that all enslaved people in the confederate states are to be freed. It took two and a half years before General Gordon Granger presented General Orders No. 3 in Galveston, Texas, stating ‘The people of Texas are informed that, by a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.’ For this reason, Juneteenth is also known as Freedom or Emancipation Day for African Americans. This is why we celebrate June 19, 2023 as Juneteenth National Independence Day to commemorate the notification of emancipation to enslaved African Americans and abolishment of slavery in the United States.”

Secretary Hegseth, however, has issued no similar memos or statements. Instead, his office “requested ‘a passive approach to Juneteenth messaging’ for the holiday on Thursday commemorating the end of slavery, according to an email obtained by Rolling Stone,” the news outlet reported.

This year, there is no plan to even “publish Juneteenth-related content online” according to the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs.

So what is the Pentagon under Hegseth allowing, although not promoting?

READ MORE: ‘Feckless or Complicit’: Hegseth Blasted in Heated Hearing Over Social Media Influencer

According to Rolling Stone, “holiday celebrations that build camaraderie and esprit de corps; outreach events (e.g., recruiting engagements with all-male, all-female, or minority-serving academic institutions) where doing so directly supports DoD’s mission; and recognition of historical events and notable figures where such recognition informs strategic thinking, reinforces our unity, and promotes meritocracy and accountability.”

Secretary Hegseth has implemented stringent anti-DEI policies, and “dutifully carried out Trump’s anti-diversity purge, declaring in a handwritten directive, posted to X, that ‘DEI is DEAD’ at the Department of Defense.”

“Those who do not comply will no longer work here,” he wrote.

Last week in a Senate hearing, Hegseth said in prepared remarks (video below), “DEI is dead. We replaced it with a colorblind, gender-neutral, merit-based approach, and the force is responding incredibly.”

Rolling Stone also reported that “Hegseth has claimed that ‘DEI & social/gender theories directly undermine meritocracy and standards. Which, in the military, makes us less ready — and gets troops killed.’”

Watch the video below or at this link.

. @SecDef “President Trump charge me to focus relentlessly on warfighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness.

That is exactly what we’ve done since day one.” pic.twitter.com/o2b9hSTTF0

— DOD Rapid Response (@DODResponse) June 12, 2025

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