Misguided Compassion

How The Trevor Project Sidelines Parents in the Name of Saving Children

In 1998, Peggy Rajski, Celeste Lecesne, and Randy Stone founded The Trevor Project, a non-profit with a mission to provide crisis intervention and suicide-prevention services on behalf of LGBTQ youth. It was launched on the heels of the trio’s Academy Award-winning short film Trevor (later made into a stage musical) about a fictional 13-year-old boy who tries to end his life when people around him discover he has a crush on a boy at school.

The organization quickly grew into a leading go-to resource for LGBTQ youth, offering a 24-hour crisis hotline, online chat services, and advocacy efforts aimed at advancing legislation favorable to the LGBTQ lobby. It advocates for social acceptance for LGBTQ identities and practices based on the premise that LGBTQ youth suffer suicide risk and mental health struggles due to discrimination, bullying, and lack of family support. It has garnered widespread praise and financial support for its alleged “lifesaving” role in reducing suicide and improving the mental health outcomes of the people they serve.

Reason for Surveillance

Of course reducing suicide and mental-health risks are noble goals, but the Trevor Project’s advocacy is rooted in misguided compassion, as its fundamental positions regarding sexuality, gender identity, and gender expression contradict biological realities and historically recognized norms requisite for human flourishing.               

But what it lacks in recognition of natural orders and biological realities, it more than makes up for in financial resources and capacity to influence the public, boasting that “Through advocacy at all levels of government, public education, and litigation we leverage our expertise and cutting-edge research to advance protective policies, increase public support, and create the world each LGBTQ+ young person deserves.”

And what kind of world is that? Not only does the organization affirm transgender, non-binary, and gender-fluid identities, it encourages young people to explore and affirm whatever sexual orientation or gender identity they “feel.” A high priority is placed on “protect[ing] LGBTQ+ young people from the dangerous practice of conversion therapy,” and if you are a parent, teacher, therapist, or pastor who aims to advance a biblical view toward same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria, The Trevor Project has formidable resources to wield to stop you.

More Recent Offenses

The furtive separation of children from their parents is especially egregious. Upon arrival on the website’s homepage, users are immediately notified that they can “press the ESC button three times to quickly leave our site” to avoid discovery by the surveilling eyes of parents. Once on the site, young people are offered opportunities to participate in chat rooms for ages 13 to 24, participate in mental health surveys, and explore resources to better “understand” their sexuality and identity. Minors will learn how the views of their non-affirming parents are harmful to them and thus more likely to increase their risk of suicide, and children in such situations will find materials to “educate” their parents on “Allyship in Action.” In its commitment to “create safe and affirming school environments,” The Trevor Project has also pushed schools to adopt policies allowing students to transition socially by changing their name and pronouns without parental involvement.

All these preemptive exclusions of parents send a subtle but powerful message to children: their parents are an impediment to their wellbeing. This not only encourages a breakdown of natural family ties but sows confusion in vulnerable children’s hearts and minds at a time when they most need the stability and guidance of those who love them—their parents and families.