Daughters of the American Revolution live up to their name by rejecting ban on trans women

This story originally appeared on Them.The Daughters of the American Revolution officially rejected a proposed ban on transgender women from joining the organization on June 26.The long-awaited vote came after years of pressure within the DAR — a nonprofit historical preservation and education society created in 1890, composed of women with direct ancestry to soldiers in the American Revolutionary War — to exclude trans women from the organization’s definition of “woman,” which would effectively ban them from its ranks.In 2023, the DAR officially amended their guidelines to include language that protects trans members against discrimination in the application process, per The Washingtonian.“Some have asked if this means a transgender woman can join DAR or if this means that DAR chapters have previously welcomed transgender women,” Pamela Rouse Wright, President of the DAR, wrote in a newsletter on the bylaws. “The answer to both questions is, yes.”“The new language does not change the criteria for membership,” DAR spokesperson Bren Landon confirmed to Newsweek.After right-wing media outlets picked up the story with an anti-trans angle, implying there was a policy change that suddenly allowed trans women to join, rather than a clarification of existing bylaws, a group of DAR members began lobbying to ban trans women from the organization. A small percentage of members even left the organization after DAR leadership made it clear that trans members were welcome, per The Washingtonian.The DAR governing body rejected the first official proposal for bylaw amendments that would ban trans women in February 2025, after its Texas chapter put them forward. After national lobbying from a group of members called Daughters Advocating for Restoration, which claims to advocate for “preservation of Historic American Societies for Women,” the proposed bylaw amendments that would exclude trans women from the DAR’s definition of women were added to matters