Facebook is going head-to-head against several hundred drag queens in San Francisco.

The trouble stems from the social network refusing to back down on its real-name policy, which requires that every member who has a profile on Facebook use their real name.

Last week, after a member of the public tipped off Facebook administrators that hundreds of San Franciscan men were using their drag alter egos as their real name, the social network suspended the accounts as a violation of user policy.

Members of the drag community believe their stage names are their real names, and that Facebook is discriminating against them by insisting they go by their birth names.  

A protest scheduled to take place at Facebook headquarters was cancelled after representatives of the social network agreed to sit down with the drag performers to discuss the issue.

TechCrunch reports that a Facebook spokesperson said the company was not backing down on its policy, but it did reactivate the accounts that had been suspended.

The users of these accounts have received a two-week grace period to determine how they want to identify themselves online.

“This will give [the drag queens] a chance to decide how they’d like to represent themselves on Facebook,” the spokesperson said.

“Over the next two weeks, we hope that they will decide to confirm their real name, change their name to their real name, or convert their profile to a Page,” she added.

Facebook has previously made exceptions to its identity rule; Lady Gaga’s personal account goes by the stage name of the pop star, and not by her given name Stefani Germanotta.

A search for that name will find numerous accounts listed under it, with the likelihood of it being genuine very unlikely. 

Members of the drag set, rallying behind Sister Roma, a mainstay of the performing community in California, have vowed to fight on.

The group launched an online petition asking Facebook to change its policy, and it has already received nearly 24,000 signatures.