Daughters of the American Revolution disbands Texas chapter after transgender membership fight 

The Daughters of the American Revolution recently disbanded a Texas chapter that wanted to limit membership to biological women.

Last week, the group’s National Board of Management voted to close the Martha Laird Chapter in Mount Pleasant, a small city in northeastern Texas.

Organizing Secretary General Marguerite Hogan Fritsch sent members a letter saying the board approved the move by a two-thirds majority because the chapter violated national bylaws.

DAR denied acting because of the chapter’s membership views. It claimed chapter officers used chapter resources to help a separate advocacy group.

The chapter’s women can remain in DAR as members-at-large, Fritsch said. They will belong to the national group without a local chapter and have until Nov. 9 to join another chapter that accepts them. Fritsch also told the chapter to refund their dues.

DAR was founded in 1890 after the Sons of the American Revolution refused to admit women. Members must prove they descend from someone who supported American independence.

National leaders allow males who identify as transgender women to join if their government-issued birth certificates list them as female.

The Martha Laird Chapter sought to change that policy in September 2024. Eleven other chapters supported its proposal to bar all male applicants.

The chapter hired the Center for American Liberty to review claims that a female-only membership rule could threaten DAR’s tax-exempt status. The lawyers said the group could probably adopt the rule without losing its tax exemption.

The national board rejected the proposal in February 2025, preventing it from reaching a vote at the group’s annual meeting.

“It’s ridiculous that we’re having to talk about this, having to fight so hard to keep our women’s society free of men,” chapter member Laura McDonald told The Federalist at the time.

Members tried again this year, proposing to define a woman as someone born female. Delegates rejected the resolution June 26, with 1,481 opposed and 984 in favor.

DAR President General Ginnie Sebastian Storage also refused requests for a separate meeting to reconsider the issue, saying the group’s voting body had settled it.

McDonald founded Daughters Advocating for Restoration to defend female membership. She spoke about the group’s faith at a June rally before the national vote.

“Nothing we do here matters if not done in service to the Lord,” she said.

Republican lawmakers have also sought to keep DAR membership female-only.

Rep. Ben Cline, R-Virginia, introduced a bill in July to add that requirement to DAR’s federal charter. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, introduced a Senate version.

“Rather than honoring and preserving a lineage-based organization for women, it has embraced radical gender ideology at the expense of the women it was created to serve,” Cline said of DAR in a release. “The Daughters of the American Revolution Membership Integrity Act is common-sense legislation that requires the Congressionally-charted DAR to return to serving the true daughters of the American Revolution.”

Beth Parlato, senior legal counsel at Independent Women, also supported Cline’s legislation.

“Women have the legal right to maintain institutions, spaces, and opportunities of their own,” she said in the release.