NEW YORK, March 20, 2025 – Today, The Trevor Project launched a public awareness campaign to address the public health crisis of suicide among LGBTQ+ young people in rural communities with support from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. The campaign launch features a new 10-minute documentary short film that tells the story of a mother and daughter living in Iowa: Angie, a Methodist pastor, and Jubilee, her 19-year-old daughter who identifies as bisexual.
“No one should feel isolated simply because of who they are, yet the LGBTQ+ community is too often met with hostility,” said Walter Panzirer (he/him), Trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust. “We know that LGBTQ+ youth in rural states have higher rates of suicidal thoughts, anxiety and depression,” Panzirer said. “It’s essential that they know they’re not alone. The Trevor Project is helping to spread awareness of the serious challenges LGBTQ+ youth face and let them know resources are available to help them thrive.”
The new short film, part of The Trevor Project’s series Learn with Love, shares a story of navigating identity, reconciling faith, and learning what it means to treat your family with love and acceptance – no matter what.
This three-year public awareness campaign, announced in September 2024, is supported by a $5 million grant from Helmsley. The ongoing, targeted multimedia effort aims to spread awareness of the issue of suicide among LGBTQ+ young people, connect youth in crisis with the care they need, and equip target audiences with tools and trainings to address the public health crisis across nine states served by Helmsley’s Rural Healthcare program (Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming).
LGBTQ+ young people are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers. The Trevor Project estimates that more than 1.8 million LGBTQ+ young people (ages 13-24) seriously consider suicide each year in the U.S., and at least one attempts suicide every 45 seconds. New data found that LGBTQ+ young people living in rural areas reported significantly higher rates of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts – and lower rates of access to mental health care – compared to their peers who live in non-rural areas.
“Storytelling is such a necessary tool to support The Trevor Project’s mission of ending suicide among LGBTQ+ young people, and it is critical for reducing stigma associated with LGBTQ+ families,” said Jaymes Black (they/she/he), CEO of The Trevor Project. “The ability to hear from real, everyday Americans like Angie and Jubilee allows people in every corner of the country to say, ‘Hey, they’re not so different from my family.’ I am so grateful to the Helmsley Charitable Trust for their generosity, and for being such great partners in telling important stories and furthering our mission to end suicide among LGBTQ+ young people.”
The public awareness campaign will be amplified through a series of targeted, paid advertisements across leading digital platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and Connected TV (CTV) – consisting of streaming channels, such as Disney+, Peacock, Paramount+, Max, WBD, NBC, and Discovery+. The short documentary and the accompanying 30-second and 60-second trailers will also be available for broadcast on digital and traditional broadcast platforms.
Both the content and distribution channels have been specifically selected to optimize reach among LGBTQ+ youth living in rural communities across the nine key states served by Helmsley’s Rural Healthcare program.
In the film, Angie highlights the important role that parents can play by accepting their children for who they are. She says, “From my perspective, the risks of not accepting your child are at best deeply, deeply wounding them and at worst, burying them. At the end of the day, what I kept coming back to was, it’s okay to have some fears to question, to struggle for a little bit. But it’s also okay to love them, and to support them 100 percent. In fact, the second part really is non-negotiable. You have to love them. And, and I’m going to do it as best I possibly can.”
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About The Trevor Project
The Trevor Project is the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ young people. Trevor offers 24/7 crisis services, connecting highly trained counselors with LGBTQ+ young people whenever they need support. To drive prevention efforts, The Trevor Project also operates robust research, advocacy, education, and peer support programs. The Trevor Project envisions a world where all LGBTQ+ young people feel safe, seen, and accepted exactly as they are.
About the Helmsley Charitable Trust
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust aspires to improve lives by supporting exceptional efforts in the U.S. and around the world in health and select place-based initiatives. Since beginning active grant making in 2008, Helmsley has committed more than $4.5 billion for a wide range of charitable purposes. Helmsley’s Rural Healthcare Program funds innovative projects that use information technologies to connect rural patients to emergency medical care, bring the latest medical therapies to patients in remote areas, and provide state-of-the-art training for rural hospitals and EMS personnel. To date, this program has awarded more than $750 million to organizations and initiatives in the states of Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and two U.S. Pacific territories. For more information, visit helmsleytrust.org.
If you or someone you know needs help or support, The Trevor Project’s trained crisis counselors are available 24/7 at 1-866-488-7386, via chat at TheTrevorProject.org/Get-Help, or by texting START to 678678.
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Contact: press@thetrevorproject.org