The Trevor Project

Grow­ing up is no fun.  For any­one.  But for young peo­ple who are—or even think they might be—lesbian, gay, bisex­u­al, trans­gen­der, or oth­er­wise dif­fer­ent from the “norm,” it can be painful­ly fright­en­ing even to begin to acknowl­edge that they might not be the indi­vid­u­als soci­ety assumes them to be.

It’s called “inter­nal­ized homophobia”—the invol­un­tary belief in soci­ety’s neg­a­tive per­cep­tions of non-heterosexuality—and it often leads to feel­ings of shame, self-loathing, and a dimin­ished sense of self-worth.  Add the impacts of inter­nal­ized homo­pho­bia to the hor­mone cock­tail par­ty that is ado­les­cence for any­body in any body, and life for LGBTQ+ teens and young adults can be all but unbear­able.

That’s why the Trevor Project exists.  By tele­phone, text mes­sage, or chat, LGBTQ+ young peo­ple can con­tact a Trevor cri­sis coun­selor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week—a sup­port­ive lis­ten­er who will hold space for what­ev­er is going on in that young per­son­’s life, and let them know they’re not alone.  It’s life-sav­ing, life-affirm­ing work, and I’m proud to spend sev­er­al hours each week vol­un­teer­ing for Trevor to make sure the work con­tin­ues.

If you or some­one you know is in need of sup­port, vis­it trevorchat.org, text START to 678–678, or call 866–488-7386, any time.

And if this sounds like the kind of work you want to get behind, please vis­it the Trevor Project web­site, or drop me a line if you’d like to talk about it first.