Alabama Daughters of the American Revolution Is The State With The Third Most Resolute Chapters

The Daughters of the American Revolution, commonly known as the "DAR", has 3,000 local chapters worldwide. With over 190,000 members in the genealogical society for descendants of American Patriots who fought in America's war for independence, known as The American Revolution. Traditionally, the organization has been for ladies only, but in recent years the leadership of the society has looked the other way when males who transitioned joined the organization using altered birth certificates and the like, since they weren't natural born females. This led to a push at the DAR's annual convention over the summer, the Continental Congress, to have a vote to ensure that the organization was open to natural born females, only. The motion failed to pass. With many reports that there were inconsistencies in the way the vote was conducted. Leading to several chapters of the DAR to vote to become what is known within the organization as a "Resolute Chapter".

A Resolute Chapter within the DAR means that the chapter has adopted a resolution calling for a special meeting to be held on October 11th, 2026 in accordance with Article VIII, Section 7 of the organization's bylaws. With the resolution specifying that the purpose of the meeting on October 11th is, "for the purpose of considering and adopting the following Resolution: . . ." A resolution which includes among other things that, "Resolved, That in Article III, Section 1 of the Bylaws, the term "woman" shall be understood to clearly mean a woman who was born female, and therefore, individuals who were born male shall not be eligible for membership; transgender women shall not be eligible for membership; and men who have their birth certificates changed from male to female shall not be eligible for membership."

Tennessee has 16 out of its 103 chapters within its membership that have voted to become a Resolute Chapter. Making the Volunteer State the state with the most Resolute Chapters in the DAR, thus far. Since the State of Texas has the most local chapters of any state in the DAR with 200 local chapters in the organization, it is not surprising that Texas is a close second behind Tennessee with 15 chapters that have voted to become Resolute. Alabama has but 71 total local chapters of the DAR throughout the state. Yet, Alabama is giving Tennessee and Texas a run for their money with 14 Resolute Chapters to date. Making Alabama the state within the DAR with the third most Resolute Chapters.

Indeed, many of Alabama's elected officials are cosponsoring a federal Daughters of the American Revolution Membership Integrity Act, which will explicitly hold that membership in the DAR is for biological women, only. Since the DAR was incorporated by the Fifty-fourth Congress of the United States of America on February 20th, 1896, Congress as the ability to amend the DAR's congressional charter to define membership criteria as being for biological women, only. Thus, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville is co-sponsoring the bill along with U.S. Senator Katie Britt. In the U.S. House of Representatives, Robert Aderholt and Gary Palmer are co-sponsoring the federal bill for the DAR.

The federal bill was first introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by Ben Cline from the 6th District in Virginia on Wednesday, July 15th, 2026. With Rep. Cline stating that, "The DAR has a longstanding tradition of celebrating and empowering women who represent the exceptional heritage of the birth of our Nation. However, as we celebrate America's 250th birthday, the organization has now abandoned the very principles on which it was founded. 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. The Daughters of the American Revolution Membership Integrity Act is common-sense legislation that requires the Congressionally – chartered DAR to return to serving the true daughters of the American Revolution."

Luisa Reyes is a Tuscaloosa attorney, poet, reporter, vocalist, piano instructor, and columnist who writes on current affairs, politics, and the arts.

Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Alabama Gazette staff or publishers.