Columnist Charles Krauthammer criticized the Obama administration’s transgender bathroom declaration as “disgraceful” and an example of “the arrogance of an administration unilaterally sort of overriding federalism” on Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report.”
Krauthammer, who had previously criticized North Carolina’s “bathroom law,” said, “[T]here’s something very large at stake here. And that is, the federal government is unilaterally decreeing, without a debate, without consulting with Congress, that as of now, sex is no longer — or gender is no longer a fixed category, as we have assumed for say, 5,000 years, but actually a simply a matter of declaration, of preference. That is a huge step. It’s going to have a lot of implications in the future. Again, this is a rather trivial issue, the use of the bathrooms, in comparison with other items on our agenda. It’s important to the individuals involved. But this is a major change on how we view one of the defining aspects of any person. And I think it deserves a lot more than simply a declaration that unless you accept the idea that you can declare yourself a man on a Monday and a woman on a Wednesday, and it’s completely up to you, that unless you accept that, you are a bigot, and you are acting like, the segregationists in the South 60 years ago. I think that is a huge step. And the use of the power of the federal government to bully, I think that’s the right word, to enforce this, I think is disgraceful. It just shows how the arrogance of an administration unilaterally sort of overriding federalism, the separation of powers, we already know about that, is a terrible example for the future.”
He added, “[O]nce you are making this ruling, you have declared that from now on, there’s no relation to genetics. There’s no diagnosis. There’s no showing that you are of one sex, or even that you are inclined to one sex, simply a self declaration, it’s a matter of your choice. And that is a radical change. there are people who are — who have, and have a sense of unstable sexuality and who do change. It’s not the majority of transgenders. … But it would show you that if you are a person of that kind, it’s up to you to decide who you are on these days with no external objective criteria.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett