Second Wind Fund stands with the LGBTQ+ community.

Second Wind Fund exists to decrease suicide among youth by removing barriers to treatment. “Barriers” can take many forms. Often, they’re financial—families unable to afford mental health care. Other times, they stem from systemic shortcomings in a healthcare system that continues to marginalize mental health. But many barriers are social: stigma, discrimination, and the deep emotional weight of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and transphobia.

At Second Wind Fund, we believe that removing barriers means more than just making therapy affordable—it means making therapy effective. We work to match youth at risk of suicide with therapists who understand their lived experiences. Because not every provider can effectively support a Black teenage boy from Colorado Springs, an 11-year-old nonbinary youth from Limon, or a 19-year-old lesbian from Denver’s Globeville neighborhood. Removing barriers means recognizing the importance of identity, culture, and context in mental health care. Healing happens when youth are seen, heard, and supported by people who truly understand them.

For LGBTQ+ youth, the barriers are especially steep. Homophobia and transphobia persist in our schools, neighborhoods, and public institutions. These youth are often made to feel like they don’t belong—and too many internalize that message. It’s no coincidence that LGBTQ+ youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide, and that over one-third have seriously considered it.

These numbers are unacceptable.

A therapist without experience or cultural competence in supporting LGBTQ+ youth can unintentionally do harm. Lack of understanding can reinforce shame, deepen isolation, and undermine healing. If we are serious about saving lives, we must be serious about tailoring care to meet youth where they are—with compassion, insight, and skill.

That’s why we are both deeply concerned and frustrated by the recent federal decision to defund LGBTQ+-specific services from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. A universal mental health hotline is not truly universal if it erases the needs of the most vulnerable. This decision not only reduces the effectiveness of crisis support for LGBTQ+ youth, but also reinforces the barriers they already face—barriers of dismissal and exclusion.

When young people hear the message—directly or indirectly—that they don’t matter, it becomes even more critical that our mental health systems say otherwise.

Second Wind Fund urges private and philanthropic partners to step in. We must ensure that being LGBTQ+ doesn’t mean having more barriers to care—but instead, access to a system that understands, respects, and affirms them.

You can find more resources for LGBTQ+ youth at The Trevor Project and TheSecondWindFund.org/Prevention-and-Resources/