PJ Media published "When the DAR Went Woke" Part One in the middle of July; you can find that article here. This is a follow-up of what has happened since.
The mess the National Board of Management (NBOM) and the current President General of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), Virginia Sebastian "Ginnie" Storage, created when they forced the acceptance of men claiming to be women into the general membership has now reached an audience far wider than anyone could have imagined. The July 30, 2026 episode of Gutfeld! featured the problem in one of the show segments. Although the show’s guests didn’t know that much about the DAR, they did a good job of discussing the issue. Tyrus didn’t know if black people were allowed in (they are), and Kat wondered why the federal government was involved. She didn’t know that the DAR was federally chartered.
The best part came from Emily Compagno, a Fox News contributor. She stated that the DAR is a genealogical organization that requires a direct maternal bloodline back to an American Revolutionary patriot. Adopted women cannot be admitted using their adopted mother’s bloodline; they must use their birth mother’s bloodline. So adopted women cannot use an altered birth certificate, but transgender men can? Make that make sense.
The annual meeting of the DAR, known as the Continental Congress, took place this year from Wednesday, June 24 to Sunday, June 28, 2026. All the fun started on Thursday, June 25 with a motion to livestream the proceedings for those Daughters who could not be there. After a contentious 20-minute debate, the motion was voted down. Another motion, made at the same time, to adopt all the standing rules, was passed. By adopting the standing rules as is, no motion could be introduced for inclusion in the standing rules. Thus the opportunity to introduce the other side of the debate, the legal analysis created specifically for the Continental Congress, was lost. It went downhill from there. And because there was no livestream, no one outside of the hall could see what was going on.
Emily related that a friend of hers was at the Continental Congress, and was in the meeting hall that Friday, June 26, when everything went to pieces. She described how for the Friday meeting, there were only two bathroom breaks allowed for 3,000 women in a building with 50 toilets, and how there was no food or drink allowed. People were stuck in the meeting hall for twelve hours. If women left because they had to, they were not allowed back in. The people on the stage who were conducting the meeting were allowed to come and go as they pleased. They were allowed food, they were allowed drinks. They also controlled who was recognized and who wasn’t.
The average age of a Daughter is 60. Compagno’s friend stated that a woman seated next to her dissolved into tears because she needed to use a bathroom desperately, but was afraid to leave. Yes, let’s lock a large group of 60-year-old and older women in a large room and not let them leave for any reason for 12 hours. Nothing terrible will happen, right?
None of what happened was necessary. The discussion over transgender members was not supposed to be part of the Continental Congress. A special meeting was to be held in October. Originally, the schedule listed the final meeting, the education luncheon directly after the business meeting, and the end of the Continental Congress. That is not what happened.
The NBOM and Mrs. Storage shoehorned the discussion into the business meeting, knowing they had a captive audience. Only one side of the argument was shown; lies designed to scare the women were told with no pushback; and the women were not allowed to leave. By the end of the voting, over 600 women had left anyway, without voting. The margin between “Yes, keep the men out” and “No, let them in” was about 500 votes. Deceit and trickery caused the failure of the resolution to refuse entry to transgender men.
In their eagerness to force men into the organization, over the objections of the majority of the membership, the NBOM and Mrs. Storage ruined one of the best parts of the Continental Congress. The education luncheon, where the children who won the DAR essay contests from around the country read their winning entries to the luncheon, would have been the highlight of their trip to Washington, D.C. The luncheon, scheduled for directly after the end of the final business meeting, was postponed at first, then cancelled. Apparently, bringing mentally ill men into the organization is far more important than listening to children read essays about the United States.
It is truly sad that the essay winners’ trips ended on such a sour note. I predict that there will be far fewer entries next year when word of what happened spreads. That won’t matter to Mrs. Storage and the NBOM; they got what they wanted. The question still remains: why? Why has the national DAR decided that transgender men should be allowed in? That answer has yet to be found.
On July 7, 2026, President General Mrs. Storage declined the request from the chapters to discuss the matter, claiming it was settled at the Continental Congress. She can’t do that. The bylaws clearly state that the president general must call a special meeting when thirty chapters in ten states request one. She is now in violation of the bylaws.
What happens now? No one knows. This is unknown territory. Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.) has introduced a bill, the Daughters of the American Revolution Membership Integrity Act, which would amend the membership eligibility requirement to limit membership to biological women. The act has 20 Republican co-sponsors representing a wide swath of the United States. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) has also introduced a bill to modify the federal charter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution to clarify its membership eligibility requirements.
One hopes that one or both of these bills will become law, and that this issue can be settled. Perhaps Mrs. Storage and the NBOM can be removed as well. I don’t know if that could happen, but certainly hope it will.
Thank you to Greg Gutfeld, his show, and Emily Compagno for relating her friend’s sad tale. I got the shock of my life watching the DAR logo come up on Gutfeld! I only wish it had been for a better reason.
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