Bush administration cuts suicide hotline; government set to take over crisis calls

I forgot to mention this last week, but (thanks to MoJo Blog), I learned that the Bush administration has cut the funding for the 800-SUICIDE hotline. That is no surprise, since it is getting increasingly difficult to pay for frills like hotlines when we are spending most of the country's money in Iraq.

But the situation is even worse than it seems: The Substance Abuse & Mental Health Service Administration, a division of Health & Human Services, is creating its own crisis center, which means that the U.S. government would have access to the confidential records of the 2,000 people a day who call the hotline. Pam Spaulding at Pam's House Blend points reminds us that suicide is a leading cause of death among teenagers, and of course, that includes a number of gay teenagers. Pam writes:

You might recall SAMHSA, which came under fire from the fundies back in February of last year. Agency officials were forced by the Bush admin (after the WH received hopping mad calls from Family Research Council's Tony Perkins) to remove all LGBT references from a federally funded suicide prevention conference in California and to kill gay-positive content from the SAMHSA site.

Once again, the word "faith-based" is ringing in my ears.

Read Pam's post to see how you can help.