Editor's note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

My most recent Glenn TV special, “The Reckoning,” exposed the dark world of “gender-affirming care.” You would be shocked and horrified by what is being done to society’s most vulnerable — our children — and those with special needs, all in the name of this corrupt transgender ideology.

If anyone has wondered how the “T” made its way into the “LGBQ” acronym, this is why.

Where did this movement come from? It seems to have exploded over the past decade. People identifying as transgender make up about 0.5% of the U.S. population, yet an army of nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations is pushing the cause. Millions of dollars are spent to lobby politicians and influence legislation.

This article from the Atlantic in 2016 asked a question that no media outlet in the country today would feel even remotely safe to ask: “Is the ‘Trans Lobby’ Disproportionately Strong?” The Atlantic dared ask this question long before there was a trans woman at the HHS. Who was pushing this lobby, why was it such a big ticket item? Again, this group makes up only 0.5% of the adult population here. I recognize that there are some people who have gender dysphoria, but why does it get so much attention? Why so much lobbying, legislation, and money?

LGBT Funders tracks funding for “trans issues,” and you’ll never guess who some of the biggest backers are: the Open Society Foundations and the Tides Foundation, both of which are funded by George Soros.

Do you think that Soros has a soft spot for a medical condition that is represented by a small fraction of society? Or is it that this topic has exploded into one of the most divisive issues in the country?

Soros isn’t alone in sending big-time dollars to fund heavily divisive issues. China is also involved. Two billionaires who are close to the Chinese Communist Party are pouring tens of millions of dollars into trans issues. They’re doing it here in the United States but curiously not back home in China.

Up until about a decade ago, most of us knew next to nothing about gender dysphoria. Bathroom laws seemed dangerous, but the issue really became a dividing one when the lobby centered on one area: children.

A recent New York Times story reported that the number of kids identifying as transgender has nearly doubled over the past few years. The rate in adults has stayed relatively the same, but it is exploding among kids. According to the Times:

Experts said that young people increasingly have the language and social acceptance to explore their gender identities. ... But the numbers ... also raise questions about the role of peer influence or the political climate of the community.

There is a whole lot of money and power insuring that this issue pushes “peer influence” on our kids. We see stories practically every day exposing another teacher pushing “gender identity” on children without parental consent.

If the media had any credibility at all, it'd call this for what it is: an influence operation. If the words “influence operation” sound a bit much, take a look at this document from 2019 titled, “Only Adults? Good Practices in Legal Gender Recognition for Youth.”

This document reads like an intelligence operation to remove consent from parents. Do you know who released it? The document comes from a network of activist groups under an umbrella organization called the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex, Youth and Student Organization. It has some big-name partners, like the Reuters Foundation — as in Reuters news — and Dentons, which is the world’s largest law firm by number of lawyers and reportedly the sixth largest by revenue.

The document was produced to be a “powerful tool for activists and NGOs working to advance the rights of trans youth.” If you want to push an agenda and to end parental consent and rights, this is the guidebook to get it done. This is how an army of activists, NGOs, the media, and even politicians took a small medical condition and centered it on children.

It goes in depth on how to successfully run an influence operation. It targeted young politicians. It instructed the opening salvos of the movement to “de-medicalize the campaign” by focusing on “gender recognition” and stay away from what would later entail medical treatments.

It instructed the army of NGOs to get out ahead of government legislation by bombarding it with progressive legislation before the government had time to develop its own. It advised framing — which is closer to outright manipulation — to center the issue as a human rights concern. It warned that pushing trans issues, specifically on children, would be hard to sell to the public.

But these leaders had a plan: They suggested tying these campaigns to already popular campaigns, like marriage equality. If anyone has wondered how the “T” made its way into the “LGBQ” acronym, this is why.

Finally, they advised avoiding excessive media coverage when possible — to keep it on the “down low” because the public may not like it. Confusing kids was meant to be done in the shadows. It was meant to be a quick and silent rollout targeting the government and media. It was piggybacked on top of marriage equality. Now, the most vulnerable in our society are paying the price.