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DAR disbanded the Texas chapter that asked it to define "woman" in its bylaws

Photo: Edna Barney from Virginia, / CC BY 2.0 (source)

DAR Disbands the Texas Chapter That Fought to Limit Membership to Biological Women

by
M.A. Rothman

By M.A. RothmanOctober 12, 2026 · 4 min read
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The Daughters of the American Revolution has disbanded the Texas chapter that led the fight to limit membership to biological women. On Saturday, Oct. 10, the society’s National Board of Management voted by a two-thirds majority to dissolve the Martha Laird Chapter, according to the organization’s own statement and reporting by Fox News Digital.

The national society insists the vote had nothing to do with the chapter’s position on who counts as a “daughter.” The women who lost their chapter, and a growing list of their supporters in Congress, are not buying it.

What the board said, and what it didn’t

The letter announcing the decision cited Article XIX, Section 4 of the DAR’s national bylaws, which allows the board to discipline or disband a chapter for violating the society’s rules or for action discrediting the organization. According to Fox News, the letter did not name the specific conduct that triggered the vote.

In a public statement, the society said the board found that chapter officers had used the chapter’s name, leadership positions and communications “to further the goals of a separate advocacy organization.” The board determined it was that use of chapter authority and resources, “not the views being advocated,” that warranted dissolution. The statement added: “The Board’s decision was not based on the chapter’s or its members’ views concerning membership eligibility.”

Laura McDonald, a member of the chapter, has spoken publicly for it throughout the membership fight. The board’s letter, as reported, does not identify which outside group it meant or what specific acts crossed the line.

Under the decision, Martha Laird members do not lose their national DAR membership. They become members-at-large, have until Nov. 9 to join another chapter, and will have the dues they paid to the chapter refunded. Individual members remain free to keep pushing for a bylaw change.

A two-year fight over one word

The dissolution is the latest step in a dispute that has been building since 2024. According to Fox News, in September 2024 the Martha Laird Chapter and 11 other chapters proposed a bylaw amendment defining membership by biological sex. The national board rejected that proposal in February 2025. McDonald said at the time that the rejection “sadly confirms what we knew all along – that leadership is taking a political stance which is not based on fears of the loss of 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.”

The question then went to the membership. On June 26, 2026, DAR members voted 1,481 to 984 against a measure that would have limited membership to those “born female,” according to the New York Post, as cited by Fox News.

McDonald has described the society’s position this way: if you are a man who does not claim to be a woman, you are not eligible, “But, then they go on to say that a man who claims he’s a woman is a woman, and therefore he’s eligible for membership.”

Founded in 1890, the DAR admits women who can prove direct descent from a patriot of the American Revolution. Its own name has always been its definition. The chapter that asked the national society to write that definition down is the chapter that no longer exists.

Congress steps in

The fight has already moved beyond the society’s meeting halls. On July 15, 2026, Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.) introduced the Daughters of the American Revolution Membership Integrity Act, which would amend the DAR’s federal charter to limit membership to biological females while keeping its genealogical requirements. Cline said that “Rather than honoring and preserving a lineage-based organization for women, it has embraced radical gender ideology.”

Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) signed on as a cosponsor. “It should be common sense that to be a part of the Daughters of the American Revolution, you have to be a daughter,” Palmer said in a July 17 statement. “Congress will not allow radical activists to erase womanhood from one of our nation’s oldest patriotic organizations.”

On July 28, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) unveiled a companion bill in the Senate, cosponsored by Sens. Katie Britt, Tommy Tuberville, Mike Lee and Kevin Cramer. Blackburn said the DAR “was founded by women for women” and that the bill would ensure it “is reserved for the real daughters of the American Revolution.”

A DAR spokesperson has argued that the federal charter does not set membership rules, and that the society’s national bylaws do. That is precisely the point the Martha Laird women were trying to make: if the bylaws decide, then the bylaws should say what a woman is.

The reaction

Sonja Shaw, a conservative candidate for California superintendent of public instruction, rallied to the chapter. “The women of the Martha Laird Chapter in Texas stood their ground,” she said. “They sought to preserve a definition of ‘Daughters’ based on biological sex and asked for a clear vote.” She added: “Why should women be punished for standing up for the very definition of the organization they belong to?”

The board may well be right that it has the authority to police how chapter names and resources are used. But when the chapter shut down is one that helped lead a two-year effort to define the society’s founding word, and the letter announcing it does not identify the offending conduct, the society should not be surprised that its members draw their own conclusions.

The women who asked the Daughters of the American Revolution to say what a daughter is lost their chapter, and now Congress may have to answer the question for them.

Sources

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