Student sees need for CA LGBTQ youth mental health campaign

Having launched a group for LGBTQ students and their allies at their California middle school, Selby Price tries to keep up to date about the LGBTQ community by subscribing to different advocacy groups' emails. Thus, after meeting the Central Coast Coalition for Inclusive Schools at a local Pride event, they started receiving its emailed newsletter.

It was how the 12-year-old queer seventh grader first learned a state-funded LGBTQ youth mental health initiative was recruiting last summer community members for an advisory body to help with its development. Selby applied.

"If I don't apply, I had a feeling it was going to be just a bunch of adults on this LGBTQ youth advisory board. I am definitely accustomed to being one of the only young people in the advocacy work I do," Selby told the Bay Area Reporter during an exclusive interview over the weekend at their home with their mother. "They need an LGBTQ young person on this LGBTQ advisory board."

Selected for it, Selby and the members got to work last September to begin hashing out what the campaign should look like. It was emotionally taxing at first, recalled Selby, as their first meetings delved into each person's own mental health experiences in order to guide their discussions about the initiative's messaging and approach to take. Selby shared how they have found support from their teachers at school but have had to deal with classmates heckling them in the hallways due to their androgynous look.

"I've mostly been dealing with bullying at school and just feeling very othered," said Selby. "My teachers have been a huge help but definitely the kids at school — there is a lot of yelling in the hallways, stuff like that, offensive stuff."

Seeing their experiences reflected in the messaging concepts and brand ideas for the campaign "was cool," said Selby.

"It has been a really impactful experience to be part of the LGBTQ advisory and to see all the messaging concepts we have come up with for social media and all that," said Selby. "I can see how much they can make a difference and how much they are tailored to LGBTQ people."

The group rallied around the tagline of "This Is Me" for the initiative, though Selby was unaware of its connection to a song of the same title from the 2017 movie "The Greatest Showman" that became a queer and transgender anthem. They'd never seen the film or heard the music but liked how the phrase spoke to being true to yourself and not changing yourself to fit a label.

"It feels like a deep breath. This is me, this is who I am, and I am comfortable with myself. That's what it feels like to me," Selby said of the tagline.

They also felt it spoke to questions of "am I queer enough" that LGBTQ youth may be asking themselves.

"I think it was very relatable and accurately, like, was tailored to the experiences faced specifically by LGBTQ people, and it wasn't all about the more, like, what you see in the media ... the struggles you see in the media with coming out and bullying and gender dysphoria and struggles with that," said Selby.

So, they were stunned to learn last month that the California Department of Public Health had abruptly canceled the LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health Campaign ahead of its expected rollout this spring at Pride events around the state. LGBTQ lawmakers last year had secured more than $3 million in the state budget for it, and the state health agency's Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI) had contracted with the LGBTQ-owned firm Change Craft last July to work on its creation and launch.

As the B.A.R. previously reported, CYBHI Director Dr. Sohil Sud at the California Health & Human Services Agency and new California Department of Public Health Director Dr. Erica Pan informed the firm and LGBTQ advocacy groups that they felt the LGBTQ-specific campaign was too limited in scope and were rolling it into the $21 million statewide "Take Space to Pause" campaign launched in December and running through early 2026.

"I am definitely still kind of processing it all. But I think it would have been really powerful and impactful, and I think most likely more effective, to have an LGBTQ-specific campaign," said Selby. "Just because so many of the issues we face are specific to our community and it is important to have a campaign that specifically targets those issues."

Trump executive orders

With Republican President Donald Trump issuing a host of executive orders attacking the rights of queer and trans youth during the first weeks of his second term in late January, it crystallized for Selby the need for the initiative they were working on.

"It definitely is crazy. While I know there is no way for them to enforce them, it's crazy to see executive orders that can directly affect me," said Selby. "There was one about teachers being able to use students' preferred pronouns. I was just like, 'Wow, that can affect me directly if they can find a way to enforce that."

A family friend whose own kids are also part of the LGBTQ community had called Selby's mother in a panic last week about what the Trump administration's executive orders would mean for their children at school. The two families arranged to get together over the weekend to provide each other with support.

"OK, we just have to hope that our bubble of being in California is going to protect us right now. That is what we are counting on. That is the only thing keeping us remotely sane and safe," said Selby's mother.

(To protect them from being harassed by those supportive of the White House's anti-LGBTQ policies, the family asked the B.A.R. not to disclose the city where they live or publish the name of Selby's mother since she has a social media presence.)

The timing of the health department's decision "was weird," said Selby's mother, coming a week prior to Trump's inauguration on January 20. Selby also felt it came at "the worst possible time" due to the anxiety and fear LGBTQ people felt ahead of Trump's second term with his repeated campaign pledges to target the rights of trans youth and adults.

"It felt like California was kind of abandoning the queer community right when we needed their help the most and right when it was more important than ever for them to stand by us," said Selby.

The state health department has yet to make Pan, Sud, or any other staff member available for an interview with the B.A.R. to discuss their decision to end the LGBTQ youth mental health campaign or explain how its planned messaging will be utilized as part of the larger Take Space campaign aimed at teaching young people how to deal with various stressors in their life, according to its website.

Addressing the concerns about their decision raised by LGBTQ advocates and community leaders in recent weeks, Pan and Sud sent them a letter January 30 to further explain how they intend to incorporate the LGBTQ youth-specific mental health messaging into the more generically tailored Take Space campaign. They noted it also had been developed with input from LGBTQ advisers, including queer and trans teens, and will have a longer duration than the "This Is Me" campaign would have had.

"Like you, we share concern regarding the impact of recent rhetoric and actions by the incoming Federal Administration on the well-being of California's LGBTQ+ youth. These activities underscore the imperative to support LGBTQ+ populations throughout the entire state for as long as possible," wrote Sud and Pan. "The question before us is not if but how to best support LGBTQ+ teens with important information about stress management and stigma reduction in this critical time."

In recent days the Take Space website has been updated to include specific LGBTQ resources that were not there when it launched late last year. For example, its resources page now has a dedicated LGBTQ+ tab that lists five organizations focused on the LGBTQ community with links to their own websites, such as the Trevor Project and the Trans Lifeline.

Also listed is the California LGBTQ Health & Human Services Network. Its inclusion came as a surprise to the LGBTQ network, as it does not provide direct services but acts as a clearinghouse and advocate for LGBTQ nonprofits, service agencies and others across the state. Dannie Ceseña, the LGBTQ network's first Two-Spirit and Native director, told the B.A.R. during a February 3 phone interview that no one from the state health department had spoken to them about listing their agency on the Take Space website.

"It doesn't seem very well thought out to me. It just seems they are covering their bases," Ceseña told the B.A.R. of the response so far from state health officials.

Also concerning to Ceseña has been seeing the health department take the research and work done by Change Craft and hand it off to the firm contracted to oversee the Take Space campaign, the Rescue Agency, which also happens to be LGBTQ-owned.

"If they are doing it to Change Craft, who else are they going to do this to in the future?" asked Ceseña.

Sounding the alarm

Since last month Ceseña has sounded the alarm about the cancellation of the LGBTQ-specific youth initiative and has asked other organizations and community leaders to call on the state health department to reverse course. They have also been asking for a meeting with leaders of the state agency to hear directly from them about their decision-making process regarding the LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health Initiative and how it will be incorporated into the larger campaign.

To date, no such meeting has been scheduled, said Ceseña, who sent another letter to Sud and Pan on Tuesday reiterating their concerns and asking for more information about their plans moving forward. They stressed they want to work together strengthening "California's leadership in LGBTQ+ mental health."

Ceseña told the B.A.R. that, "Yes, I would love a direct sit down to get all of the questions answered and not just receive a general letter of what their plan is. They did leave a lot of questions unanswered."

Statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization Equality California was among those that raised concerns with the state health agency. It remains ready to work with state leaders, the LGBTQ Legislative Caucus and CDPH "to increase support for lifesaving mental health resources and initiatives," it told the B.A.R.

"In the face of unprecedented attacks on trans youth nationwide, the mental health and well-being of LGBTQ+ young people must be a top priority for CDPH and the state of California," stated gay EQCA Executive Director Tony Hoang. "Canceling this campaign was a setback, but it cannot be the end of the conversation. In this dangerous moment for the LGBTQ+ community, California must lead with action and advance a long-term, sustainable strategy for addressing the mental health needs of LGBTQ+ young people."

Selby and their mother joined Change Craft founder Brandon Tate in Sacramento last month to speak directly with LGBTQ caucus members about why they feel a mental health initiative for queer and trans youth is still needed. Among them was gay state Senator John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), as they are his constituents.

Laird told the B.A.R. they had "a very interesting conversation" and that he was struck with how comfortable Selby is with their identity and advocating for themselves and other LGBTQ youth. He noted he was at least a decade older when he reached that point in his own youth.

"It was a great meeting or at least I liked it," said Laird. "I also felt like they really felt heard and that was almost as important as anything else."

With Pan needing to be confirmed by the Legislature as the new state health director within 12 months of her appointment by the governor, Laird said he intends to ask her about the handling of the mental health youth initiative. He told the B.A.R. he hopes those confirmation hearings will be scheduled in the coming months.

"I would like to see the program reinstated. It is a very small amount of money," noted Laird, for a state whose budget is over $300 billion.

Amid talk of the state facing budget deficits, Laird surmised the LGBTQ youth campaign may have been canceled as a cost-saving measure.

"What happens is that there is a desire in different agencies to save money, and they look for every possible way to do it," he said. "Sometimes nobody thought to be sensitive to the real impact it has or what they are stopping from happening."

Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), chair of the Senate Budget Committee, declined to comment on the youth initiative contract when contacted by the B.A.R. this week due to wanting to get more information on the specifics of the matter. But speaking generally, he said the mental health needs of LGBTQ youth and their peers have to be addressed.

"We have a real lack of access to mental health services for young people in general, particularly for LGBTQ young people who are at more risk for homelessness, subjected to violence, unstable family situations," said Wiener. "Now, with everything happening politically, it is getting worse and so critical for California to step up for these young people."

Ceseña told the B.A.R. they want to see the LGBTQ caucus members continue to advocate for a campaign like the planned "This Is Me" one and put pressure on the state health agency to commit to doing so.

"They should hold firm to what they believe in and promoted to our youth last session," said Ceseña.