Thank you. I appreciate your answer; this issue is something I've been thinking about for a long time and trying to understand at a deep level. It fascinates me because so many facets of one's identity are things not voluntarily chosen: sex; race; ethnicity; and religion, at least during infancy and early childhood. And they're enduringly complex, since aspects of identity that one values deeply might be the basis for others to reject one; and they're ultimately individual, as each person experiences the components of their identity in a unique way.

I'm not sure what "immutable characteristics" you have in mind regarding the left's view of identity. It seems to me that the right focuses on race and culture issues every bit as much as the left, just with a different frame of reference ("different = bad") and desired set of outcomes. Would you agree?