If you are aged 13 – 24 and want to explore your feelings and discuss your experiences in a warm, judgment-free space, get in touch. This is a live-chat text service where you’ll be connected, one-to-one, to an experienced volunteer who will be lesbian, gay or bisexual.

If you are a young teenager, you might be wondering if you will be lesbian, gay or bisexual as an adult and concerned about what that might mean for you.

If you are an older teenager perhaps you’re worried out coming out as lesbian, gay or bisexual and thinking about how to tell family and friends.

Or perhaps you are being bullied, feeling lonely, struggling in a relationship or simply need a space to talk about what’s going on in your life. Get in touch and our volunteers will be happy to listen and support.

Our live-chat service is open between 3pm and 6pm on Tuesdays and between 4pm and 7pm on Thursdays. Send us an email at any other time and we’ll get back to you within 48 hours.

If you’d like to know more about the Helpline, take a look at our Q&As below. If you have a question that isn’t answered here, please email contact@thelgbhelpline.org

Q: Why did you set up the Helpline?

It was needed. There is no other dedicated service for teens and young adults who want to talk about their feelings around being same-sex attracted.

Q: What kind of service is it?

It’s a listening service. The Helpline does not offer counselling. Instead it provides a welcome space where you can be yourself.

As all of the volunteers are lesbian, gay or bisexual, you will know that you can speak freely in a warm and empathetic space

We’re all so positive about being LGB and we hope that if you’re feeling worried about your future, you’ll be reassured that it will be OK to be gay for you too.

Q: How is it different to any other service?

Like other helplines, we’ll be there to support teens and young adults facing a whole host of issues – ranging from coming out and bullying to break-ups and family alienation.

What makes us unique is that all of our volunteers believe in biological reality. That means that if you’re a girl who feels different, because you prefer short hair and playing football, we won’t suggest that you might really BE a boy. And if you’re a boy who is being bullied because you like to wear make-up and enjoy activities traditionally associated with girls, we won’t say that is because you ARE a girl.

We start from the understanding that there are an infinite number of ways to be male or female and homosexuality is perfectly natural.

Q: Who are your volunteers?

Our volunteers are lesbians, gay men and bisexuals with decades of helpline experience between them gained at well-established and highly-regarded charities. In their professional lives, many work in roles related to the safeguarding of children or vulnerable adults or are mental health or education professionals.

Q: How can you ensure your volunteers are suitable to talk to teens and young adults?

The service is governed by our Safeguarding, Code of Conduct and Privacy policies which all of our volunteers must abide by.

Each volunteer has undertaken in-person training, been interviewed by a panel certified in Safer Recruitment, and had a final face-to-face interview to explore their understanding of safeguarding and their responsibilities.

Despite the fact that no personal data is captured by the Helpline, all candidates signed a non disclosure agreement (NDA) forbidding discussion of any of the conversations they had or viewed, so that all conversations can remain confidential.

Finally, each candidate underwent an Enhanced DBS check with Barred Lists. This is the highest DBS Level.

Q: Can you be sure that children are kept safe when using your service?

This is our top priority.

If you get in touch you will be connected directly, via live-chat, to a one-to-one conversation with a trained volunteer. There are no chat rooms and you won’t be connected with another person who has come to us for help. It’s a sad fact that any service for young people can be targeted by people who could pose a danger to children and we have taken steps to ensure that doesn’t happen.

We will ask how old you are that the volunteer can answer in a way that’s suitable.

Each volunteer is supervised who is responding to a contact will be overseen by another volunteer to help them to provide the most useful answers.

All text-chats are saved, securely stored in the cloud, and are not accessible to anyone except the official administrators of the helpline.

All calls will be logged to include details of your age, the reason for your call and some notes about the outcome.

Q. What do you want to achieve?

Ultimately, our sincerest wish is that we can help you to feel good about yourself and to live a happy and fulfilled life. We hope our support will help to make that happen.