Many rights championed by the progressive left today are not focused on the individual, but on groups of people who have a characteristic in common. These characteristics are often centred around gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation, but they can include practically any other characteristic that can make a clear distinction between the “in-group” and the wider community. The “in-group” is generally referred to as the identity group, and the focus on their situation by the progressive left is referred to as identity politics.
Represented by the left
Identity politics is sometimes a double edged sword. It can ease the plight of unjustly discriminated identity groups, but it can also make them more divided from the wider community, and more defined by their one shared characteristic than anything else their individual personalities may have to offer. But whether identity politics is actually beneficial to identity groups does not seem to be of major concern to the progressive left. What will be of major concern to the progressive left though is whether they can represent all these identity groups.
When I studied Law, we had an ethics class where we discussed conflicts of interest as it relates to lawyers representing certain persons or companies. I see the progressive left a lot like lawyers. They have taken it on board (usually pro bono) to advocate on behalf of certain identity groups. So far this is all very well and good, except for the inconvenient truth that identity groups can be just as guilty of discrimination as the wider community. Thus, we get a situation where an identity group can be at odds with another identity group.
Conflict of interest
When the progressive left marches for the religious rights of the Islamic community, they are also, inadvertently, marching against the rights of the gay community. For the latest Pew research on Muslims shows that the overwhelming majority do not just oppose same-sex marriage, but they consider homosexuality a sin. In the UK, half of all Muslims advocate for jail terms for sodomy. This conflict between two identity groups also works for women. In England, there are nearly one hundred Sharia courts, which do not give women the same rights as men. But who will the progressive left advocate for? The rights of women to be free from misogyny, or the rights of the Islamic community to be free from religious bigotry?
The progressive left cannot represent the most homophobic identity group, while also representing the LGBTIQ community. It is a clear conflict of interest. They have, for a long time, ignored these unpleasant differences, but these differences will not ignore them. It will get worse and worse, and at some point the progressive left will have to drop a client or become dishonest hypocrites.