Emirati women attend a football training session for Emirati schoolboys at the Football Club in the Gulf emirate of al-Ain on February 10, 2009.

Jezebel (one of my favorite sites) reported yesterday that the United Arab Emirates are pursuing a public awareness campaign about the infiltration of the fourth gender.

Many may remember the ongoing research on the “third gender,” a feminine man, physical man who’s gender identity does not match his sex, hermaphrodite or homosexual (depending on who you talk to).

I have seen reports about the notion of the third gender as a healthy inclusion of transgendered and homosexual individuals in societies otherwise intolerant of “deviant” sexual behavior. I have also read about the third sex as a pariah and low class of individuals tolerated, but not included.

That said, the UAE ministry of social affairs has launched a campaign called “Excuse me, I am a girl” aimed at ridding the “fourth gender” from the country. As Naji Hay (from the ministry) asserts:

“The phenomenon of manly women has become apparent in society…. These women are against the normal nature of females. Their deviant behavior threatens other normal girls. This is why we had to launch this initiative to protect society from this menace.”

What I found so fascinating about this report was its indication that gender performance is effectively equal to sexuality in the UAE. Manly women may be a threat because some are lesbians, but manly women are unacceptable even if they are not lesbians.

This element of performance runs throughout the research on the third gender and, frankly, throughout our own country’s understanding of LGBT people.

To what extent are we told to hide who we are, how we interact with people? How many times have you been yelled at or spit on while holding hands with your partner? More importantly, how many times have loved ones asked you to keep quiet and stop announcing “it” everywhere?

Even those most religious and intolerant Americans would be happy if gays and lesbians could acknowledge their deviance, overcome it and learn to behave in a normal way.

In some ways, the UAE has it right. The performance of new gender roles is threatening. It is the expression of difference and, sometimes, of a difference in attraction. This expression encourages diversity and communicates to others that they are not alone in their frustration with the roles they have been shown.

So here’s to manly women, in the UAE and at home. Proclaiming difference is never easy, and it is so vitally important.