Support continues to grow in the fight to protect members of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) from being forced to allow men who identify as women to join the organization. In recent weeks, two more Alabama chapters have joined the national movement to change the bylaws, while U.S. Reps. Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville) and Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) joined the fight.
Aderholt and Palmer have co-sponsored House Resolution 9701 (H.R. 9701), the "Daughters of the American Revolution Membership Integrity Act."
The bill seeks to add clarifying language to a section of the U.S. Code that recognizes the DAR with a Federal Charter. That language codifies the same definitions Alabama lawmakers put into state law through the "What is a Woman Act."
It defines the term woman as "an adult human female. It further defines female, saying, "'the term 'female' means a person who naturally has, had, will have, or would have but for a congenital anomaly or intentional or unintentional disruption, the reproductive system that produces, transports, and utilizes the large gamete (ova) for fertilization."
"It should be commonsense that to be a part of the Daughters of the American Revolution, you have to be a daughter. Unfortunately, common sense has become a casualty of the left's radical agenda," Palmer told 1819 News in a written statement. "This legislation protects the integrity of the DAR by preserving its historic. Congress will not allow radical activists to erase womanhood from one of our nation's oldest patriotic organizations. I am proud to cosponsor this bill, and I thank Rep. Cline for his leadership on this issue."
Aderholt and Palmer's efforts are supported by thousands of women across the nation, including many in Alabama.
Those women have formed Daughters Advocating for Restoration, a group dedicated to restoring and preserving the Daughters of the American Revolution and other Historic Women's Organizations.
While they are not named on the organization's website, sources tell 1819 News that they include the South Alabama chapter, including the D'Iberville Chapter (Mobile), the Bon Secour Chapter (Gulf Shores), the Tristan de Luna (Mobile), the Ecor Rouge (Daphne/Fairhope) and the Princess Sehoy Chapter (Birmingham).
Other chapters around Alabama have scheduled votes to join the Restoration movement in the next several months.
The bill has garnered support from the Concerned Women for America, American Principles Project, Heritage Action, and Independent Women.
"The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) was founded in 1890 to empower women to celebrate their unique legacy in the American founding, but today, the organization is insulting the very women it was designed to serve by denying the inherent dignity of womanhood and embracing radical gender ideology," said Penny Nance, CEO and president of Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee.
"Being a 'daughter' of the Revolution is no longer a stipulation of membership, and the once highly selective organization now allows men masquerading as women to join the DAR's ranks. This month, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that womanhood belongs to biological women. DAR has a responsibility to the American public to uphold that common-sense truth, and Congressman Ben Cline's Daughters of the American Revolution Membership Integrity Act will ensure that DAR belongs to the real daughters of the American Revolution, not to sons," she continued.
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