During Friday's broadcast of Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5's "The Jeff Poor Show," Beth Quave, a Mobile resident and longtime member of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), urged women to join the fight to protect the organization's integrity by amending the bylaws to define membership eligibility, rejecting men who identify as women.
Quave told guest host Apryl Marie Fogel about her personal experience, with the disclaimer that she was not speaking on behalf of her chapter, state society or the national organization.
“As you said, I don't speak for my chapter or my state society, but I can give you background on what I know as a past registrar and a current chaplain. So I have been privy to some information and kind of some history because of my involvement with this wonderful organization for the last 15, almost 16 years,” Quave said.
“When you think about Daughters of the American Revolution, it's a name that people in the United States know," she continued. "We've seen it in popular culture. It's been on TV shows and in movies. And it's because it is the premier lineal society for women, but it's also a service organization. And so our society is entrenched in education, patriotism, and also historic preservation,” she continued.
Quave explained that a trip to Washington, D.C., and the national DAR office led to her becoming a member and that she’s been personally active in recruiting younger women to the organization.
She is also a member of the Daughters Advocating for Restoration movement, which is working with chapters nationwide to pass resolutions requesting a special meeting. Seven chapters in Alabama have joined, with others expected to do so within the next several months.
The bylaws state: “A special meeting also shall be called by the President General upon the written request of thirty or more chapters in at least ten states. Not less than thirty days’ notice of a special meeting shall be given, and only that business specified in the call may be transacted.”
The Restoration movement is seeking to take DAR out of the middle of an ideological fight that national leadership has put them in by allowing men who identify as women to join. One reason credited with DAR’s success is that it is a nonpartisan, nonpolitical, non-ideological organization focused purely on history.
“We have this ideological dispute that's happening currently, and I think it's at a kind of a fever pitch right now because of what happened at the Continental Congress this summer in June,” Quave explained.
At the Continental Congress, leadership concocted a process meant to stave off the efforts to call a special meeting to amend the bylaws.
“I want to be very careful and be respectful of everybody's views. But, you know, we've lost members of our chapter becoming Resolute, and that's heartbreaking. But we also have just as many members who, whenever they learn about this, they are utterly shocked. They had no clue that this was happening, and they're very much opposed to this viewpoint that 'trans women are women, and so, therefore, they need to be allowed to be in the Daughters of the American Revolution,'” Quave explained
If social media is any indicator, the women seeking to honor the organization's history far outnumber those who are seeking to allow men to join, but Quave hopes those numbers of outspoken daughters who want to preserve its history will swell.
“Our national president, her verse for us is Proverbs 31: 10, ‘A good woman is hard to find and worth far more than diamonds.’ I hope that other women will take this charge and join in with the society to help conserve it,” Quave said, ending the interview.
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