Service organization Daughters of the American Revolution is calling on its board to pass a bylaw that would exclude biological men from joining, even if they identify as transgender women.
DAR boasts over 190,000 members across 3,000 chapters worldwide. The group came to be when women weren’t allowed in the Sons of the American Revolution.
However, a change to the bylaws last year that was meant to update “non-discrimination policy language” seemingly allowed for transgender women to join, which members are attempting to fix with another amendment to the bylaws. The board is set to consider the amendment sometime in early February.
“Our goal is to restore and preserve our Historic American Society – founded for women, by women. Yet, we find ourselves in a strange position of combating those in leadership who are sadly driven by an agenda,” DAR member of the Martha Laird chapter Laura McDonald said in a statement.
The group has tried to separate the issue of transgender members from this policy change that it claimed to make in order to maintain its 501(c)(3) status. Last year, DAR told the Washington Examiner that it “does not have any bylaw related to transgender members and there has been no change to membership eligibility.”
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A similar effort to outline membership eligibility to biological women failed last year. Should the board approve this measure, it will go to a vote before the full membership at the Continental Congress in June.
To become a member, one must still prove lineage to a patriot of the Civil War.