DOUG MCKELWAY (GUEST HOST): This is all about a new Obama administration directive directed to all public schools across the United States, which requires them to allow transgender students to use the bathroom and the locker room of their choice, even if their gender is a different gender on their birth certificate. The guidance does not impose any new legal requirements, but it comes with a very strong stick as well as a carrot: the threatened withdrawal of federal funding for the school district in which the offense happens. Let's bring in the panel now, Steve Hayes, senior writer for The Weekly Standard, Susan Page, Washington bureau chief at USA Today and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer. Charles, what do you make of it?

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Well look, on one level you could say it's a fairly small problem, tiny population. But there'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 is 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. 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 segregationist 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, enforce this, I think is disgraceful. It just shows how the arrogance of an administration unilaterally sort of overriding the federalism, the separation of powers, we already know about that, is a terrible example for the future.

MCKELWAY: Susan?

SUSAN PAGE: I agree this is a serious issue that deserves serious debate. I'm not sure it's fair to say people declare themselves a man on Monday and a woman on Wednesday. The transgender people I have met have felt from a very early age that they are a gender that is not the one that’s on their birth certificate, and that’s a feeling they hold for their whole lives and it sets up a lot of serious questions, but I agree it’s something there’s a lot to debate. Andwe should be aware that this is of course going to go to the courts. This is -- the administration does not have the final word on their interpretation of this law. It's going to go to the courts. We're going to have a debate.

[...]

KRAUTHAMMER: Yes, there have always been people of indeterminate sex. Some are genetic, like people with Turner’s Syndrome, where you have an x chromosome and you don’t have another one. So you don’t have the second x, you don’t have the y. There are people who have a set of chromosomes which normally are male or female, but have a sense that they belong to another gender. That is true, but once you are making this ruling, you have declared it from now on there's no relation to genetics, there's no diagnosis, there's no showing that are you a 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.

MCKELWAY: 0.3 percent is the number --

KRAUTHAMMER: But it would show you that if you're a person of that kind, it's up to you to decide who are you on these days with no external objective criteria.

Previously:

Hannity Proposes “Liberal Bathroom Areas” Where “You Can Have All The Transgendered Back-And-Forth That You Want”

Herman Cain Is Worried That “A Pedophile Person” Could “Abuse” Transgender Bathroom Protections

Watch Tamron Hall School White Right-Wing Radio Host For Opposing Transgender Equality