AB 1540
CFC Opposes988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: LGBTQ+ youth
CFC Says
CFC opposes AB 1540.
AB 1540 — 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: LGBTQ+ Youth CFC Position: OPPOSE The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a national mental health resource designed to help anyone in crisis reach help quickly. AB 1540 would require California to build a specialized routing system within 988 so that callers who press "3" are automatically connected to LGBTQ+-focused crisis providers. The bill also creates a $5 million grant program to fund organizations that provide these specialized services. Every child struggling with mental health deserves compassionate, effective care. CFC's concern is not with helping hurting youth — it's with how they are helped. This bill steers vulnerable young people toward providers ideologically committed to affirming LGBTQ+ identities, rather than offering neutral, evidence-based support. Families have a God-given right to guide their children's care, especially during a mental health crisis. Routing minors to advocacy-driven organizations — without parental knowledge or consent — bypasses that authority entirely. California families deserve a 988 system that helps every child, not one that advances a particular social agenda at taxpayer expense. AB 1540 is currently moving through the California State Legislature.
Currently at 2nd Committee, having cleared 3 stages. Hearing in Senate Health Committee in 2 days.
Legislative Progress
CFC's Position Letter
March 10, 2026
Mark González
1021 O Street, Suite 6150
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: Opposition to AB 1540
Dear Assembly Member González:
On behalf of tens of thousands of constituents, allied organizations, and more than 2,000 churches across California, the California Family Council strongly opposes AB 1540.
AB 1540 appropriates $5 million to route LGBTQ+ identified youth who call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline to organizations pre-selected for their ideological alignment with affirming LGBTQ+ identities. The 988 Lifeline was designed as a universal, clinically neutral crisis intervention resource. Embedding ideological gatekeeping into a public mental health infrastructure fundamentally compromises the integrity of that system and transforms a crisis service into an advocacy pipeline, funded entirely by taxpayers.
Crisis counseling best practices, as outlined by SAMHSA and the Joint Commission, prioritize individualized, evidence-based care. AB 1540 bypasses this standard by mandating identity-based routing without regard to a caller's actual clinical presentation, family circumstances, or preferences. A young person in an acute crisis deserves a trained counselor focused entirely on their safety, not a referral filtered through a political and ideological lens. No other demographic group's crisis calls are rerouted to advocacy organizations based on identity. This disparate treatment is both clinically unsound and legally inconsistent.
AB 1540 facilitates connecting these children to outside organizations without parental knowledge or consent. Parents retain a constitutionally recognized interest in the care, custody, and upbringing of their children, affirmed by the Supreme Court in Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000), and Parham v. J.R., 442 U.S. 584 (1979). A state-funded program that systematically routes minors to identity-affirming advocacy groups, outside the family structure, raises serious constitutional concerns regarding parental rights and due process.
Several states that have pursued identity-based crisis intervention funding have faced subsequent litigation, public backlash, and documented cases where minors were coached away from family reconciliation and toward irreversible medical interventions. California should learn from these experiences rather than replicate them at taxpayer expense. Genuine care for LGBTQ+-identified youth in crisis requires clinical excellence, family engagement, and individualized attention, not a predetermined ideological pathway.
For these reasons, California Family Council respectfully opposes AB 1540. We urge you to reconsider this measure and work toward crisis intervention solutions grounded in sound clinical evidence, constitutional respect for parental authority, and genuine care for the well-being of California's youth.
Sincerely,
Greg Burt
Vice President
California Family Council
Official Description
Existing federal law, the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020, designates the 3-digit telephone number “988” as the universal number within the United States for the purpose of the national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline system operating through the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Existing law, the Miles Hall Lifeline and Suicide Prevention Act, requires, among other things, the Office of Emergency Services (OES) to verify that technology that allows for transfers between 988 centers, as well as between 988 centers and 911 public safety answering points, is available to 988 centers and 911 public safety answering points throughout the state, to appoint a 988 system director, and to verify interoperability between and across 911 and 988. Existing law establishes the 988 State Suicide and Behavioral Health Crisis Services Fund and provides that 988 surcharge revenue in the fund is available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for purposes of the act. This bill would require the California Health and Human Services Agency (agency) to annually determine whether an adequate specialized LGBTQ+ suicide prevention hotline is activated by the federal government under 988 and would make implementation of this bill contingent on the agency’s determination, as specified. The bill would require OES to, no later than 6 months after the agency’s determination, request the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to enable a press 3 function for calls originating in the State of California to allow callers to dial 988 and press “3” to be automatically routed to a specialized call center. The bill would require OES to, no later than 12 months following the approval by SAMHSA, ensure that the specified technologies are available. This bill would require, no later than 12 months following approval by SAMHSA, the agency to identify and contract with a qualified entity or entities that specialize in LGBTQ+ suicide prevention services. The bill would require the agency to determine the eligibility criteria, establish an application process, and administer funds to the qualified entity, as specified. The bill would require a qualified entity to comply with various requirements, including having a primary objective of reducing suicide rates or addressing mental health crises. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.