My (21M) sister (17F) is telling me she’s hurting herself and is suicidal, and my religious parents (53) won’t take me seriously.

Lot of background needed, so I’ll try to keep it simple. I’m LGBTQ, and this has been a strong point of contention between my parents and I. As such, my sister has always been the “golden child”, the one who kept going to church, wasn’t mentally ill, wasn’t queer, etc. My mom in particular favors her.

I have a history of suicide attempts, self harm, and hospital visits, as well as therapy and medication. (I’m doing good now). While I have a good support group and resources, my sister, who is about to go to university in the fall, has none of this.

My parents refuse to get either of us therapists that aren’t Christian—I got lucky that mine is very progressive. As such, my sister, who doesn’t want that, quit going. She told me tonight she’s starving herself on and off and wants to die, and that she thinks about suicide a lot. She describes what sounds like dissociation, and panicked when I told her the reality of the situation between our parents and I, repeating “I have a normal family, normal parents, a normal brother, it’s fine, I’m fine, I’m fine.” Half of the time she tells me she no longer wants to get better or work on it.

I’ve brought this up to my parents multiple times in the past as I see myself in her. My dad keeps making excuses to not take action, such as “Well I told her she can talk to us.” My mom wants none of my thoughts as “they are her parents and know what is best”, and seem to believe I’m forcing the idea of therapy onto my sister. Additionally, any non-Christian therapist is off the table. They don’t seem to think anything else is acceptable.

My therapist recommended a Christian progressive therapist for her, and my parents are suspicious because it’s coming from me. I’ve seen her self harm scars. I have no reason to believe she’ll stop starving, as anything could trigger it again. I don’t know if I should be calling a hospital if my parents won’t help pay for it, or if they could even do anything about it.

I don’t care if what I have to do makes her hate me or if I have to pay for it, I just want her to get help. I’m at a loss. Really need advice on who I could contact or what I can do to help her at home, because I can’t just sit by and watch them do nothing to help. They did that to me and I can’t let it happen to her.