Contrary to its name, the Daughters of the American Revolution isn’t a women-only organization. The latest casualties of the DAR’s commitment to accommodating radical transgender ideology are the ladies of the DAR’s Martha Laird chapter, who were informed in an Oct. 10 letter that they were officially axed from the organization after a two-thirds majority vote by the National Board of Management.
DAR Organizing Secretary General Marguerite Hogan Fritsch attributed the decision to a violation of DAR bylaw Article XIX, Section 4, which claims authority to disband “any chapter guilty of violation of the rules of the National Society, or of action discrediting the organization.” Yet, Fritsch did not specify exactly which actions constituted a violation worth forcibly shuttering the chapter over.
Fox News Digital later reported that the DAR’s National Board of Management found the Mount Pleasant, Texas-based “chapter officers had used the chapter’s name, leadership positions, communications, and governance processes to further the goals of a separate advocacy organization.”
The DAR has since scrubbed its webpage documenting the history of the 84 year-old Martha Laird chapter. Cemetery records, however, indicate that the East Texas branch of the DAR named itself after Laird, “the great-great-grandmother of the Organizing Regent, Zenobia Slaughter Lide (Mrs. Dean Lide).” Laird and her husband, both Irish immigrants, not only “gave civil service in the American Revolution,” but also had seven sons and three son-in-laws who fought for the colonies’ independence.
Anyone who has followed the DAR’s recent history of letting men infiltrate its ranks knows the chapter at the forefront of the fight to keep one of the largest patriotic women’s nonprofits in the world female is the Martha Laird chapter.
Since 2023, the DAR has officially, sometimes without the knowledge of its members, welcomed men with altered birth certificates to its chapters across the U.S. National DAR leadership’s commitment to accommodating delusional men at the expense of its core mission prompted an exodus of thousands of members from several of its chapters over the last several years.
The Martha Laird chapter, joined by nearly a dozen endorsing chapters, submitted a proposal to limit membership in their society to women, defined as “a biological female at conception, having only naturally occurring X chromosomes, exclusive of Y chromosomes, and certified as female or girl on the original birth certificate” in January 2025.
The goal of the proposal was to receive a national vote at the organization’s 2025 summer Continental Congress, especially after the initiating chapters received confirmation from the Center for American Liberty that the DAR “would have a strong First Amendment defense” if it was sued for barring males from joining. The Martha Laird members hoped that the proposal would satisfy the DAR’s internal bylaw procedure and soothe the national chapter’s fears about losing its nonprofit status over allegations of discrimination.
Instead, the DAR refused to forward the proposal to the Continental Congress and declared through a letter from the recording secretary general that the suggested amendment was “not … suitable subject matter for inclusion in the bylaws and not to be in the best interests of the National Society.”
In another blow to the quest to keep men out of the DAR, a resolution to limit membership to women, defined as “born female,” was defeated on June 26, 2026 in a 1,481 to 984 vote. The vote came after a confusing string of events and a bypass of the “requirement that 100% of the membership must be notified about this resolution” and was followed by a note from Ginnie Storage, president general of the DAR, reminding members that “the decision of the voting members reflects the considered judgment of the membership assembled at the Continental Congress, and it deserves our respect.”
“To any member who has felt discouraged or unwelcome: you are, and remain, a valued Daughter,” Storage, a member of the DAR’s trans activism Facebook group Daughters for Inclusivity, added.
As of August 2026, 129 DAR chapters across 35 states requested a special meeting “for the sole purpose of discussing and voting on the issue of allowing men with amended birth certificates into the DAR.” Instead of obliging, the DAR’s National Board of Management spent the October weekend scheming to disband the dissenting chapter.
The decision effectively excommunicates the Martha Laird chapter members from the DAR unless they manage to secure a spot in another chapter by Nov. 9. The letter was careful to note that these “Members-At-Large” will only be allowed to keep their current DAR status if they are “accepted by the other chapter.”
It is unclear if other chapters that participated in the proposals to protect the DAR from males masquerading as females are also on the chopping block. One source told The Federalist that “many are concerned the further chapter disbandments will take place in order to silence its members and stop the effort to keep DAR for biological women only.”
“If the Daughters of the American Revolution cannot define what a woman is, then the First Amendment means nothing, and our American history means nothing,” Laura McDonald, Martha Laird treasurer and founder of the Daughters Advocating for Restoration, told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham.
The DAR’s letter informing the Martha Laird chapter of its fate came just one day after McDonald and another Daughters Advocating for Restoration board member received the Share The Arrows Award for refusing to “back down from the fight for what’s good and right and true.”
Jordan Boyd is an award-winning staff writer at The Federalist and producer of “The Federalist Radio Hour.” Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.