Spanish
New York.- More than a hundred celebrities, including Pedro Pascal, Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter, and Dua Lipa, signed a letter this Monday requesting the US Government to maintain funding for a federal program that provides suicide prevention services to LGBTQI+ individuals.
The organization The Trevor Project is behind this petition, which demands the protection of the $50 million funding for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline project, which offers 24-hour support seven days a week.
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The missive takes place after a leaked draft of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) budget in April revealed that the Government has proposed to eliminate federal funds from the services of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which provides emergency assistance to young LGBTQI+ people with suicidal thoughts.
In the letter, also signed by other names such as Christina Aguilera, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sarah Paulson, Daniel Radcliffe, Troye Sivan or Cara Delevingne, they point out that this cut will have "devastating and potentially deadly consequences for LGBT youth across the country.""This is about people, not politics. In a time of deep division, let's make this something we can all agree on: no young person should be left without help in their darkest hour," say the signatories, who are mostly dedicated to the world of entertainment.
Thus, they ask the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and Congress to restore and protect funding for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline services in the fiscal year 2026 budget. The Trevor Project's CEO, Jaymes Black, thanked the celebrities involved and emphasized that LGBTQ+ youth "navigate a world that too often tells them they don't belong."In the request, The Trevor Project states that this program, launched in 2022, has connected about 1.3 million people with "life-saving" counselors and recalls that young people in the LGBTQ+ community are four times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual people.
In this regard, the organization estimates that more than 1.8 million young LGBTQ+ people in the United States seriously consider suicide each year, and at least one attempts suicide every 45 seconds.
