Is there any command that can reference deactivated objects?

UPDATEs: (if you have not read the ORIGINAL part of this POST(below), do so first)

UPDATE-01: PeterG... Hard to give the info you request without revealing my grand secret(LOL)! ...but here is a paraphrase of the scenario.

Picture many small objects on the screen with many children each. Upon player's move(s) some objects need to be masked completely(all children), others partially masked(some of the children). The mask is drawn in front of the objects. The mask is comprised of multiple objects as well. Enabling/Disabling Renderers works fine also. Was hoping there would be a SetRendererRecursively(true/false) so instead I am trying to minimize and speed up the code by using ...SetActivateRecursively(true/false) but that introduces a new problem as deactivated objects are not within reach of the language. Hence my approach to store the reference(a pointer) for each to be deactivated parent object in a static var.

ORIGINAL POST: None of the Get/Find/GameObject/Component functions look at deactivated objects.

The only way I know to reference a deactivated object is to have referenced it into a static var prior to deactivation, that way I can use GameObject.SetActivateRecursively(true);

My other way around this issue is to disable the Renderers, instead of deactivating the objects... but that's more code... GameObject.SetActivateRecursively(true) is so much easier.

Can anyone point me to what I missed in the docs? I am concerned to have to create so many static vars. t.y.