Gov. Gavin Newsom, while slamming President Donald Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over cuts to a program offering suicide counseling for LGBTQ+ youth, said Friday he backs a law to put the crisis line's phone number on the back of all public and middle school identification cards.
"Suicide is the second leading cause of death among LGBTQ youth," Newsom said in a statement to Politico. "While the Trump administration walks away from its responsibility, California will continue to expand access to life-saving resources, because the life of every child — straight, gay, trans — is worth fighting for."
Newsom, a Democrat, spoke out after reports that Kennedy plans to cut funding from the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that provides LGBTQ-specific counseling for young people who call in through a national 988 suicide hotline.
The bill to put the crisis hotline number on student ID cards is sponsored by Los Angeles Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez.
The Trevor Project offers advocacy, crisis services, research, peer support, and education services, and is one of several nonprofit agencies that would lose funding under Trump's Department of Government Efficiency push.
The California phone number bill has come under fire from the California Family Council and other conservative organizations who say the effort "undermines families" and allows for a "playground for predators."
Newsom has been pushing back hard against the Trump administration, with California becoming the first state to file a lawsuit against the president's tariffs and another lawsuit that challenges the administration over DOGE cuts to AmeriCorps.
Earlier this month, during the first hearing for the ID legislation, GOP Assemblymember John Hoover asked why a specific number for LGBTQ+ youth was needed on the cards when a law in 2018 put the general 988 hotline on all identification cards.
"My concern has nothing to do with the ability to call a hotline, obviously, that is something that I support," Hoover said. "But if you go right now to the Trevor Project website, there are a number of resources provided that are very political in nature. There is access to a number of things that I would argue a lot of parents would be uncomfortable with."