If you want an example of why America is dividing more and more along red and blue lines, look no further than Wisconsin.
Back in March, a student at Kiel Middle School --yes, middle school -- announced a preference for being addressed by the pronouns "they" and "them" rather than "he" or "she."
The school's policy is to honor such requests. But there was an incident in which three eighth-grade boys apparently did not use the student's preferred pronouns. And now the Kiel Area School District is investigating them for sexual harassment under the federal law known as Title IX, which the prohibits discrimination because of gender identity.
Let's be clear. The boys did not rape anyone, did not touch anyone, did not stalk anyone, did not even make a sexual advance or tell a dirty joke. No, their crime was "mispronouning." And no, we didn't make that word up.
The Wisconsin Institute of Law & Liberty has urged the school district to drop the investigation, pointing that the boys speech is protected under the First Amendment and in any case "mispronouning" alone without more serious misconduct does not fall under Title IX's -- or the district's own -- definition of sexual harassment.
Whatever one's views on the use of pronouns based on choice rather than birth, can't we all agree eight-graders shouldn't have their lives tainted with sexual harassment allegations over something like this?
Unfortunately, the country's divide between left and right makes that common ground unlikely. And with ridiculous persecutions like this, the divide will only get worse.