Religious Identity and Freedom of Expression

The last twenty years or so has seen the development of what has come to be called identity politics. This has led to the claim that a liberal society should recognise and protect various important aspects of identity including religious identity. This means that a liberal society and its laws and politics should seek to accommodate strong senses of identity whether these are ethnic, cultural, gender, sexual or religious. This moves liberalism in rather a communitarian direction. How does a liberal state identify, recognise and respect these various identities? What happens when they conflict as religious identities for example often conflict with sexual forms of identity as the debate about gay marriage shows.