The Daughters of the American Revolution voted Saturday to dissolve its Martha Laird Chapter in Texas after the local unit opposed allowing transgender women to join the historic organization. National leaders said the chapter had violated the society’s bylaws.
Marguerite Hogan Fritsch, the DAR’s organizing secretary general, notified chapter members in a letter that the National Board of Management had approved the dissolution by a two-thirds majority.
“On October 10, 2026, at the meeting of the National Board of Management of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, a resolution passed by two-thirds majority vote to disband the Martha Laird Chapter, NSDAR,” Fritsch wrote. She cited Article XIX, Section 4, of the National Society’s bylaws as the basis for the action.
Fritsch’s letter did not identify the specific conduct that prompted the decision or say whether the chapter’s position on transgender membership contributed to its dissolution.
The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution confirmed to Fox News Digital that it had voted to disband the Texas chapter, but denied that the decision was based on the members’ views about transgender membership.
“The National Board of Management voted on October 10 to disband the Martha Laird Chapter in Texas after finding that chapter officers had used the chapter’s name, leadership positions, communications, and governance processes to further the goals of a separate advocacy organization,” the society said. “The Board determined that it was this use of chapter authority and resources—not the views being advocated—that constituted conduct discrediting the National Society under Article XIX, Section 4 of the National Bylaws.”
“The Board’s decision was not based on the chapter’s or its members’ views concerning membership eligibility, their efforts to propose changes to the National Bylaws, or their right to advocate for changes in National Society governance,” the statement continued.
The organization said its national members rejected a proposal seeking additional membership restrictions at their June 2026 meeting. Members of the dissolved chapter will retain their individual DAR memberships and can continue pursuing bylaw changes through the society’s formal governance process.
The Martha Laird Chapter had previously challenged the DAR’s transgender membership policy. Laura McDonald, a chapter member, told Fox News Digital last year that the organization was moving away from its founding mission by recognizing transgender women as eligible members.
“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. But if you are a man that doesn’t claim to be a woman, you’re not eligible for membership,” McDonald said.
Sonja Shaw, a conservative candidate for superintendent in California, told Fox News Digital that women and girls are increasingly being told that spaces created to protect their privacy, dignity and opportunities “no longer belong to them.” She pointed to sports, restrooms and locker rooms, and placed the DAR dispute within that broader debate.
“The women of the Martha Laird Chapter in Texas stood their ground. They sought to preserve a definition of ‘Daughters’ based on biological sex and asked for a clear vote. On October 10, national leadership dissolved their chapter,” Shaw said.
“Think about that. Women who stood up for their convictions saw their chapter, with a history dating back to 1942, dissolved. Here is the damning question national leadership needs to answer: Why should women be punished for standing up for the very definition of the organization they belong to?” she added.
Shaw connected the dispute to broader national conflicts over women’s sports and privacy in sex-segregated spaces, arguing that the controversy “is about more than one chapter.”
“Our daughters deserve a future where they never have to ask permission to stand up for the truth, and where no woman is punished for having the courage to speak it,” Shaw said.
Article XIX, Section 4, of the DAR’s national bylaws authorizes the National Board of Management to discipline or dissolve chapters that violate organizational rules or engage in conduct that discredits the society.
The Martha Laird Chapter was dissolved nearly three months after Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., introduced the Daughters of the American Revolution Membership Integrity Act. The bill would amend the organization’s congressional charter to restrict membership to biological women.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., subsequently introduced companion legislation in the Senate.
“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.
In September 2024, the Martha Laird Chapter and 11 other chapters submitted a proposed bylaw amendment that would have based membership eligibility on biological sex.
The Center for American Liberty also offered legal assistance to the chapter as it challenged DAR leaders’ assertion that excluding transgender applicants could jeopardize the organization’s tax-exempt status.
The proposed amendment was rejected by DAR’s National Board of Management in February 2025. McDonald criticized the decision at the time.
“The rejection by the National Board of Management of our proposal to define a woman in our bylaws 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,” McDonald said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
DAR, founded in 1890, previously maintained that its longstanding membership policies allowed women with legally amended birth certificates to join, provided they otherwise met the organization’s genealogical requirements.