DAR disbands Texas chapter that challenged transgender women's membership

Right · 2The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) National Board of Management voted on 10 October 2026, by a two-thirds majority, to disband the Martha Laird Chapter in Texas, which had led efforts to bar transgender women from joining. 1 2 Right · 2In a letter to chapter members, Organizing Secretary General Marguerite Hogan Fritsch said the chapter's actions violated Article XIX, Section 4 of the national bylaws, which lets the board discipline or disband chapters that break rules or engage in conduct that discredits the DAR. The letter did not identify the specific conduct or say whether the chapter's opposition to transgender membership contributed. 1 2 Right · 2The national society told Fox News Digital the board found chapter officers had used the chapter's name, leadership positions, communications and governance processes to further the goals of a separate advocacy organization. It said this use of chapter authority and resources, not the views being advocated, was the discrediting conduct, and that the decision was not based on members' views on eligibility or their efforts to change the bylaws. 1 2

Right · 1DAR said individual chapter members keep their membership and may still seek bylaw changes through the society's governance processes, and noted that members rejected a resolution adding further membership restrictions at the June 2026 meeting. Under the dissolution notice, members move to member-at-large status with until 9 November to be accepted into another chapter, and dues paid to the chapter are to be refunded. 1 Right · 1Chapter member Laura McDonald had told Fox News Digital that DAR was contradicting its founding mission by treating transgender women as eligible. In September 2024 the chapter, backed by 11 other chapters, submitted a bylaw amendment defining eligibility by biological sex, with legal help from the Center for American Liberty, which disputed DAR leadership's claim that excluding transgender applicants could risk its tax-exempt status. The national board rejected the amendment in February 2025. 2 Right · 1Conservative California superintendent candidate Sonja Shaw criticised the decision, asking why women should be punished for defending the organization's definition, and describing a chapter with a history dating to 1942. 1

Right · 1The move comes nearly three months after Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., introduced the Daughters of the American Revolution Membership Integrity Act to amend DAR's congressional charter to restrict membership to biological women; Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., later introduced companion legislation. DAR, founded in 1890, has said its policies allowed women with legally amended birth certificates to join if they met genealogical requirements. 2