Sponsors (37)
The bill preserves a biological‑sex‑based, women‑only membership for the DAR and clarifies organizational authority, but does so by excluding transgender and some intersex people, creating significant civil‑rights harms, legal risk, and potential negative impacts on nonprofit capacity.
Cisgender women who meet genealogical criteria retain a membership organization explicitly reserved for adult biological females (the DAR remains a female-only society).
The DAR and similar nonprofits keep clear authority to define membership based on biological sex, reducing ambiguity about eligibility rules for membership organizations.
Transgender women and people with differences of sex development (or those who have had certain medical treatments) who identify and live as women would be excluded from DAR membership despite meeting genealogical criteria.
The restriction creates a substantial risk of legal challenges under anti-discrimination laws, potentially imposing litigation or compliance costs on the organization and involving government oversight or taxpayer exposure.
Excluding people who identify as women could shrink the pool of eligible members, volunteers, and donors, reducing fundraising and program capacity for the DAR.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Codifies that DAR membership is limited to adult biological females as defined by reproductive anatomy, in addition to genealogical qualifications.
Official title: To amend title 36, United States Code, to modify the Federal charter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution to clarify its membership eligibility requirements, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 15, 2026 by Benjamin Cline · Last progress July 15, 2026
Restricts membership in the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution to individuals who are women and who meet existing genealogical qualifications, and adds a statutory definition of “woman” and “female” tied to adult human biological sex and reproductive anatomy. It inserts a new section into title 36 to codify this sex-based eligibility requirement and updates the chapter table of sections.