For many years, the social services have been an under-reported battleground in the fight over LGBTQ youth. Spanning adoption, foster care, and the systems most frequently referred to as “child protection” and “child welfare”, social services straddle the line between public and private more than any other domain of government. Despite the widespread attention focused on attacking inclusive education and gender-affirming care, battles over the social services predate much of the current moral panic.

At any given time for the past two years, dozens of bills have been proposed before state legislatures which seek to overturn privacy policies which have been enacted in the past decade to facilitate safe social transitions at school without “outing” students either to their peers or parents. One recent example, Missouri Senate Bill 827 introduced on January 3, 2024 by Republican state senator Andrew Koenig, would require school personnel to notify parents within 24 hours if a student requests the use of a different pronoun or name.