A few days ago, The Trevor Project laid off 12% of its staff, allegedly in the middle of union negotiations. In researching this story, I realized it's simply too complex to tell in a single post. So enjoy Part 1 of this ongoing series about The Trevor Project and nonprofits under capitalism.
Discussions around LGBTQ+ youth depression, addiction, and anxiety follow. I did my best to write it kindly.
in mid 2019, the FCC correctly pointed out remembering a full phone number on a cliff's edge is a dangerous ask, and recommended designating 988 as the national suicide prevention hotline. this was done in collaboration with representatives of several suicide prevention centers
this included a rep for The Trevor Project, a nonprofit founded to give counsel to LGBTQ youth in crisis, and several reps for Vibrant Emotional Health, a nonprofit founded by the US government to address substance abuse and mental health crisis calls
these are lofty motives, admirable ones!
...anyways, the CEO of Trevor Project from 2017 to 2022 was Amit Paley. he worked for the McKinsey consultancy firm to protect the brand image of Purdue during the opioid crisis
i would be remiss to leave the specifics implied- he basically put together a list of articles and studies for examples of how companies with dangerous, even lethal products, rebrand after bad PR

"more of a crisis" than what, amit? than the opioid epidemic??
he also cites Twitter as an example of a 'hotbed of hatred', but the only doctor we've seen overprescribe Twitter is Trump's.

"inhalant abuse,
"
i hope i don't have to explain why this is terrible. but, since it was so many years ago, maybe he's changed? how could he have known how bad the opioid crisis would get?
“Seven years ago, when I was a consultant at McKinsey,
I was assigned to a project for Purdue...” “...If I knew then
what I know now, I would not have agreed to do any consulting
for that company, and I regret that I did.”
-Amit Paley to HuffPost, 2022
wait. i'm not very good at math, but let's pull out the formulae, shall we?
(2022 - 7) = 2016
ᵈᶦᵈ ᴵ ᵘˢᵉ ᵖᵉᵐᵈᵃˢ ᶜᵒʳʳᵉᶜᵗˡʸˀ
so. this motherfucker threw together that list of crimes in June 2016.

see, linear time is a funny thing. saying "seven years ago" really feels like a poor attempt at couching, considering this is still a problem today. 'if i had known the leopards were eating faces, i would never have sent that list of panther maulings to Leopards: Rebranded'
how little do you have to care for the world to agree to work in defense of an opioid manufacturer in 2016? how can you be trusted to run a crisis prevention center if you helped Purdue during the opioid crisis?

as someone who once made use of The Trevor Project's services, in part because of opioids, i have no problem telling Amit Paley to go fuck himself.
Lockheed-Martin-Gay ass behavior.
Amit Paley Learned Some Lessons At McKinsey

after the mckinsey rep took another mckinsey rep with him to be his chief of staff, he awarded mckinsey for their Great Work with, uh,

'Let's Get Trans, Baby!' rights, or whatever 'LGTB' stands for.
Amit Paley, executive director of the Trevor Project said
that McKinsey “has done a huge amount for LGBTQ people
in general, for youth specifically, and for The Trevor Project
in particular...”
if i was staring into the camera any harder, another streaming-only show would be destroyed to make room for The Office again
“They have had early on for their employees who are part
of same-sex relationships, an LGBTQ employee group,
and cover gender-affirmation surgery for trans employees.
Barton, in particular, has been integral in pushing for policies
and creating a culture at McKinsey that supports the LGBTQ
community."
amit. amit look at me. let me hold your hand as i take you through this.

“McKinsey had perfected personnel development. It hired
the young and inexperienced for a pittance, then made its
clients pay for their further education,” McDonald writes.
mckinsey's entire business strategy was, explicitly, to hire young people and prey on their fear of failure.
And experts say the ideal McKinsey candidate is one who
often is seen as an “insecure overachiever.”
“The people at these schools are driven by the desire for status
and fear of failure. … When you graduate, you reach that terrifying
point in your life when the next thing you do is not obvious, when
there are a lot more choices than before. McKinsey makes it very
easy for people whose primary goal is to keep their options open,”
James Kwak, a former consultant, reveals in McDonald’s book.
either amit is the kind of person who sees a diversity quota designed to capitalize on queer youth's anxiety and reward it as progress, or he doesn't actually care.
health care is great! it should be a right. i'd rather not have to sell my soul to get it.

'oh, we just love the queers! they're like unicorns, for us to headhunt!'
if you think this is terrible, amit, then congrats. it is! and you were a victim of it. if you think this is clever, then that is exactly why you shouldn't have been running The Trevor Project in the first goddamn place.

6 million dollars could save a lot of lives! imagine! you could start hiring counselors with experience in different areas, or invest in training a new generation-
And this grant will be used to expand Trevor's
lifesaving services through technology.
The expansions include the creation of a
management system to recruit, train, and retain
its network of thousands of volunteers, as well as
the implementation of artificial intelligence to
increase the efficiency of Trevor's services.
-of ill-equipped therapists, taught by machines rushed to market.
gee, i wonder where you might've gotten that idea-

Amit McKinsey?
