LGBTQ+ Advocate Says Funding Cuts Are Harming the Community

Thursday, August 28th, 2025 -- 11:01 AM

(Royce Podeszwa, Wisconsin Public Radio) Roughly a month after the current administration ended an LGBTQ+ option for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, a Wisconsin mental health advocate says funding losses for such programs are harming the community.

According to Royce Podeszwa with the Wisconsin Public Radio in July, the current administration ended its funding for a “press 3” option on the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which offered specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth.

Since its inception, the lifeline has fielded nearly 18 million contacts with people around the country. More than 1.5 million of those contacts were for LGBTQ+ services.

Erica Steib is the state suicide prevention program manager at Mental Health America of Wisconsin. She told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that the cuts are part of a larger effort to limit mental health services, which she said degrades health care for everyone.

“We’re seeing all of these cuts to mental health services on a massive scale right now. And all of these things are connected and we have to understand that this is not just a problem for some people,” Steib said.

“This is not just a problem for people who identify as LGBT, or even just a problem for people who identify with having mental illness. But this is a problem for all of society because the well-being of all of us is so interconnected.”

In 2021, Steib founded PRISM, an LGBTQ+-focused peer support program and warmline. Warmlines are non-emergency phone services with peers who provide emotional and mental health support.

PRISM went on hiatus earlier this year, citing a lack of funding. Uplift Wisconsin, another mental health warmline for the general population, shut down this spring after the current administration cut $210 million in health funds across Wisconsin.

Steib said that although the 988 “press 3” option has ended, the lifeline itself is still operational and available for LGBTQ+ youth to call. “The vast majority, if not all, of the counselors and people who work on this line are people who do support the LGBT community,” she said. “There’s still a lot of capacity within 988 itself to still provide quality, competent care to queer and trans folks.”

LGBTQ+ youth have some of the highest needs and some of the most restrictive access for mental health care, according to a 2023 report by the state Department of Children and Families.

But Steib said she still has hope that funding for such programs could return. “As dark as things are and as difficult and uncertain as things are right now, people continue to find ways to care for one another,” she said. “I think that’s human nature and not something that can be erased, even by these politically-motivated attacks or these attempts at erasure.”

“I have no doubt that the reality is the majority of the people in this country do support people of all different kinds of genders and sexual orientations,” Steib added.

“That is the vast majority of people in this country who want to see safety and inclusion for all of the people around them.”

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