Targeting Children: The Dentons Playbook’s Assault on Minors

The Dentons Playbook aggressively pushes for the removal of age safeguards for legal gender recognition (LGR), demanding that children be granted unrestricted access to change their legal sex. This approach represents a profound betrayal of child protection principles, prioritizing ideological goals over the well-being of minors. The playbook’s advocacy for children as young as six to alter their legal sex, as seen in Norway, dismisses developmental psychology and the critical role of parental oversight, exposing vulnerable children to irreversible decisions.

Page 15 of the playbook explicitly calls for abolishing minimum age requirements, framing parental consent and medical oversight as "huge hurdles" for so-called "transgender youth." In Norway, children as young as six can change their legal sex with parental consent and a cursory medical note, a policy the playbook lauds as a model. Malta takes this further, allowing minors of any age to apply for LGR with court approval, even over parental objections. These policies treat children - whose cognitive and emotional maturity is still developing - as capable of making life-altering legal decisions, defying evidence that adolescents are prone to impulsivity and peer influence.

The playbook dismisses concerns about minors’ decision-making capacity, asserting that self-discovery poses "no harm." This claim ignores well-documented data on desistance rates, where many children with gender dysphoria reconcile with their biological sex when given time and appropriate support. Studies, such as those by the American Psychiatric Association, indicate that up to 80% of children with gender dysphoria desist by adulthood if not subjected to medical or legal interventions. By sidelining this evidence and relying on emotive anecdotes, such as an Icelandic activist’s reflections, the playbook prioritizes sentimentality over reason, endangering children by rushing them into decisions with lifelong consequences.

This focus on targeting children undermines the protective roles of parents and professionals, casting them as barriers to be bypassed. The playbook’s push for unrestricted LGR for minors risks normalizing a framework where children are treated as autonomous agents in complex legal matters, setting a dangerous precedent for other areas of child welfare. It demands urgent scrutiny to protect children from ideological overreach and ensure policies are grounded in evidence and reason.

Based on research and posts by Women’s News Network, preserving the Dentons Playbook after its removal from public sites by Dentons and activists, available on Substack .