One of the largest and oldest patriotic groups is in turmoil over males being admitted as ‘daughters’—and GOP lawmakers are intervening.
Heidi Weidamann joined Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) for two reasons: She is a proud, verified descendant of Revolutionary-era patriots—and she values the female-only camaraderie DAR offers.
“I wanted the privacy of a women’s group … to commune with other women,” Weidamann told The Epoch Times.
But Weidamann, 63, of Cincinnati was dismayed to learn that over the years, males have quietly been permitted to join DAR—one of the nation’s oldest and largest patriotic societies.
That revelation felt like a gut-punch. Weidamann said it hit especially hard because she recently quit a sport she loved—master’s swimming for women—after males were allowed to infiltrate it.
“Women have a right to women-only spaces and sports,” she said.
Implications of the DAR transgender-member dispute extend beyond the group’s 190,000 members, Weidamann said: “It directly ties to many evolving situations around the country and the world.”
About 3,000 DAR chapters dot all 50 U.S. states, plus Guam and 12 foreign countries. More than 1 million women have joined DAR since its founding more than a century ago, DAR’s website says.
The group’s internal feud over transgender-identifying members simmered for several years before it boiled over, drawing action from Republican lawmakers.
Congressmembers Intervene
Last month, Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.) and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) introduced the Daughters of the American Revolution Integrity Act.
If approved, it would amend DAR’s 1896 congressional charter to expressly block males from membership.
The charter gives the group clout. It also federally protects DAR’s name and insignia. It allows DAR to ask the Smithsonian Institution to accept its historic materials.
Further, the charter permits DAR to “acquire, own, lease, encumber, and transfer property” as desired. That is notable because the group’s headquarters—including a museum, convention hall, and other buildings—occupy an entire city block just west of the White House.
When announcing his bill, Cline contended that the organization has veered off course.
“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,” he said in a news release.
Blackburn said her proposal intends to “stop the organization from erasing biological reality and ensure it is reserved for the real daughters of the American Revolution.”
DAR leadership did not respond to The Epoch Times’ requests for comment.
Several women’s organizations and conservative groups are backing the Cline and Blackburn bills.
Transgender advocates lined up to oppose the measures, denouncing them as government overreach.
By Janice Hisle
