A protester supporting transgender athletes competing in women’s sports holds a transgender pride flag outside the Supreme Court on January 13, 2026, in Washington, DC. A debate over allowing transgender members has now erupted within the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Heather Diehl
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A Texas member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and her supporters are calling on the national nonprofit organization to bar transgender women from its ranks, pitting traditionalists against progressives on yet another culture war battlefield.
DAR members sought a more restrictive definition of ‘woman’
At the group’s 135th Continental Congress in June, members voted down a resolution to clarify the term “woman,” as used in the organization’s bylaws, to only include “a woman who was born female.”
For three years before that, Laura McDonald, a member from Mount Pleasant, had lobbied to keep transgender women out of the group, known as the DAR.
McDonald said she discovered in 2023 that the DAR had transgender members. While investigating further, she found a frequently asked questions document that had circulated among state and national officers of the DAR confirming the organization’s stance on allowing transgender women.
According to a copy of that document, which McDonald shared, the DAR’s position is that because transgender women live and identify as women, they are permitted to join the DAR as long as they meet other membership requirements.
The stipulation is that transgender individuals seeking membership must have birth certificates stating they are female. In all but a handful of states, people can change the gender on their birth certificates. Texas, however, is not one of them.
The head of the DAR in Texas, Susan Johnston, referred the Star-Telegram to the organization’s national president, Ginnie Storage. Storage did not respond to an email asking for perspective on the DAR’s policy regarding transgender members.
None of the Fort Worth DAR chapters responded to requests for comment.
Diverging views on what transgender members would mean for the DAR
The DAR was founded in 1890 by women who were excluded from joining the Sons of the American Revolution, a historical preservation organization founded by men whose forebears helped the United States secure independence from Great Britain in the previous century.
The DAR’s bylaws state that membership in the organization is open to women 18 or older who can prove “direct lineal bloodline descent from an ancestor who aided the fight for American independence.” According to the DAR’s website, there are 175,000 members and 3,000 chapters in the U.S. and abroad.
When asked how many transgender women were in the DAR, McDonald said she was told there were three or four.
Regardless, she said she believes that allowing any number of transgender members violates the spirit of what the DAR represents and undermines the idea of women-only spaces. She also said she and her supporters “saw the organization slipping away into the hands of people who have a left-leaning ideology.”
McDonald helped found the Daughters Advocating for Restoration, a splinter group dedicated to stopping that ideological shift. On the other side are the Daughters for Inclusivity, who welcome transgender members.
Legally, private organizations like the DAR can limit membership based on certain criteria. McDonald, though, said national leaders have warned that barring transgender members would open the DAR up to having its tax-exempt status revoked, which McDonald disputes.
Can the DAR legally bar transgender women?
In 2025, McDonald’s DAR chapter in Mount Pleasant obtained a legal memorandum from the Center for American Liberty affirming the DAR’s right under the First Amendment to prohibit transgender members. The memorandum from the group, which is a conservative nonprofit that advocates for free speech, also said the DAR was unlikely to be in danger of losing its tax-exempt status by not allowing transgender members.
Elizabeth Sepper, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, agreed. She said that private organizations generally can restrict membership without violating public accommodation laws, which include legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The DAR already prohibits men from joining, and there’s nothing illegal about that. Essentially, it comes down to how the DAR chooses to define women and men.
“A lot of organizations are facing questions of this kind,” Sepper said.
McDonald and others now want the DAR’s national leadership to call a special meeting in October for members to once again consider limits on the organization’s definition of a woman. The resolution McDonald wants to put forth at that meeting explicitly says “transgender women shall not be eligible for membership.”
DAR fight brings larger push for transgender rights to the forefront
Shortly after beginning his second term in office in January 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that was widely seen as undermining transgender rights in the U.S.
“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” the order read. “These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
Zoe Wilkerson, who works at Finn’s Place, a Fort Worth community center for transgender and gender diverse people, said the disagreement within the DAR is reflective of battles elsewhere regarding trans rights, including the fight over whether transgender women should be allowed to use women’s restrooms.
When it comes to allowing transgender women into women-only spaces — be it a membership club or a restroom — Wilkerson said it’s important to remember transgender women are not simply men posing as women.
“There are those suggesting that big, burly men are going to be going into your bathrooms,” said Wilkerson, who equated that sort of talk to fearmongering.
There are numerous civic-minded and patriotic transgender individuals who might like to join an organization such as the DAR, Wilkerson said. It’s a shame, she added, that some want to deny them that ability.
Wilkerson said the fact that DAR members last month voted against narrowing the definition of the term “woman” showed the membership at large is supportive of transgender members. Those who aren’t are forgetting their history, Wilkerson said.
“The Daughters of the American Revolution was founded because women were not allowed in the Sons of the American Revolution,” she said. “Instead of carrying on that spirit of anti-discrimination, they’re turning that discrimination toward trans people.”
This story was originally published July 27, 2026 at 12:11 PM.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Matt Adams is a news reporter covering Fort Worth, Tarrant County and surrounding areas. He previously wrote about aviation and travel and enjoys a good weekend road trip. Matt joined the Star-Telegram in January 2025.