TV: What will the conversation be like?

SM: The conversation will be however you want it. If you call the Trevor Project we will meet you where you are. What that means is we will listen to you and follow your lead and respond to what you tell us. The most important thing is that we are there for people. While we may have some questions we would like to ask we only ask what makes sense given what the caller said to us, or the chatter or the texter. We start with understanding why they're calling, understanding how they present themselves so we listen to them very carefully and we want to understand who they are and why they're calling, the way they tell us. While we might have in the back of our mind certain questions we want to ask, we may not ask those question. We need to respond to them in the moment, at the place where they are.

TV: The CDC for a long time has recommended there be a specific safe space for LGBTQ students. What are some things you would suggest that schools need to do for LGBTQ students?

SM: Well the first thing they need to do is look at their own policies and see if they have procedures and steps in place to guide people to work with and understand the issues and the challenges faced by LGBTQ and TGNC youth. We actually have some tools that can help with this. We have the Trevor Lifeguard program, which is available free online. It's actually a course, like an online course that can be used to educate people and schools. School administrators, teachers, even other students, guidance counselors about these populations, about the issues they face and about how to be aware of the mental health challenges that might be present and what to do about it. That's one resource we offer.

Another resource we offer is our model school policy. We developed one with a number of other suicide prevention organizations and this model school policy tells schools what they can do step by step to really make sure that they are putting policies and procedures in place to protect them. They can also look online and see what they can do based on this guidance to take care of the needs of trans and gender nonconforming youth.

TV: Do you have any advice for people whose parents just do not understand and do not accept their identities? Is there a backup plan in case you do come out to parents and they react in a way you wouldn't even expect?

SM: The first thing is that we don't want anyone to put themselves in an unsafe situation. The best thing that one should do is make sure that they have people they can turn to. If it's not their parents and if it's not their friends and if they don't really have other people in their community, they can go to the Trevor Project. They can call and someone will guide them and talk to them about the situation they're facing.

We also have an online community called TrevorSpace. It’s almost like a Facebook for LGBTQ youth and it's a safe community, a safe online community, for young people to talk to each other. It's monitored by Trevor volunteers to make sure that everybody is, to keep it safe. To make sure that people aren't bullying each other or to make sure that people aren't improperly communicating with each other. It's a place for young people to get peer support from each other. So if somebody is struggling with what to say to their parents or whether or not to come out, they can go onto TrevorSpace and talk to young people who face the same challenges they're facing.

We also have a Trevor Support Center online. We have a resource for adults. Sometimes, parents will call us and tell us that they're concerned about their children. Sometimes children might not have already come to an understanding of what their identity is and a lot of times it's not uncommon for their parents to call us because the parents want to talk to someone about what to do.

If they're trying to learn about what to say to their family and friends, we have a help section on that. If they're trying to figure out what to do at school and if there's someone to turn to in school, we have a section on that. So if you go to our website, the Trevor support center has a lot of resources that will help them in looking for some kind of information.

The Trevor Lifeline can be reached 24/7 at 1-866-488-7386. Text services are available Thursdays and Fridays, 1-5 pm PT, at 1-202-304-1200, and operational hours of TrevorChat are 3-9 pm ET/12-6 pm PT.

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