The left-of-center Roddenberry Foundation was created by Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, son of “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry, to honor his father’s politically progressive world view. ¹ The organization sponsors the Roddenberry Prizes, awards that support environmentalist-friendly technology development and other left-of-center goals. ² Awards include a prize of $1 million to individuals and/or businesses with ideas and innovations that primarily focus on climate change, environmental justice, civil rights, LGBT interests, and illegal immigrant rights. ³

The Roddenberry Foundation has come under fire for awarding fellowships to Linda Sarsour and Charlene Carruthers, who have expressed support for the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. ⁴  It also funds projects that seek to advance scientific breakthroughs in areas like water purification in developing countries,⁵ the conversion of carbon dioxide emissions into fuel and garbage to electricity,⁶ and adult-stem-cell research. ⁷

Background

Gene Roddenberry was a television producer best known as the creator of “Star Trek.” The show portrayed Roddenberry’s vision of an idyllic liberal-progressive future; for instance, Roddenberry’s show depicts the United Federation of Planets in Paris acting as a global United Nations with complete control over all nations. ⁸ Roddenberry was also anti-religion; he said, “For most people, religion is nothing more than a substitute for a malfunctioning brain” and “if people need religion, ignore them.” ⁹

Roddenberry admitted he used the Star Trek franchise to eschew his political viewpoints on issues like religion, the Vietnam War, the cold war, and sex. ¹⁰  Analysts have called him a “progressive icon.” ¹¹

Gene’s son, Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, created and runs the foundation with his wife Heidi. The Roddenberry Foundation explicitly calls upon the memory of Gene and his left-progressive vision: The Roddenberry Prizes are “designed to discover and award innovative solutions to achieve the future Gene Roddenberry imagined, full of optimism, driven by exploration and strengthened by diversity.” ¹²

Funding

The Roddenberry Foundation provides funding to groups and individuals working on initiatives that make a direct impact in one of these areas: civil rights, environmental protection, immigration and refugee rights, and LGBT and women’s rights. The fellowship application website features the mantra, “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.” ¹³

Notable Roddenberry Foundation grant recipients include environmentalist corporate advocacy group As You Sow, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Pew Charitable Trusts. ¹⁴

The foundation also supports pushing environmentalism through vegetarian “plant-based diets” and awarded $250,000 to the Vegan firm, Green Monday for converting 1.6 million Hong Kong residents to veganism. ¹⁵ The founder, David Yeung said, “And the easiest and most impactful way you can help yourself and the planet is by reducing your meat consumption and shifting to a more plant-based diet.” ¹⁶

The left-of-center As You Sow organization also received funding. ¹⁷ As You Sow seeks to affect the strategic direction of corporations through lobbying shareholders. Its efforts aim to pressure the board of directors to adopt left-of-center positions like climate change policy. ¹⁸

Roddenberry also funded AsylumConnect, which created an online resource for LGBT asylum seekers from Mexico and Canada trying to gain refuge in the United States. ¹⁹

Roddenberry Fellowships

In 2017, the Roddenberry Foundation announced the creation of a $1 million annual project to provide $50,000 prizes to 20 progressive activists to support projects in civil rights advocacy, environmentalism and climate change, liberal expansionist immigration policy, and social-liberal LGBT and women’s interests. ²⁰

Judges

The foundation selects progressive or left-of-center activists judges for rating fellowship contenders. ²¹ They have included:²²

• Rhea Suh, the president of the Natural Resources Defense Council and a former political appointee in President Barack Obama’s Department of the Interior who stepped down due to opposition to her views opposing the extraction of fossil fuels;²³
• Neera Tanden, the president and CEO of Democratic Party establishment-aligned think tank Center for American Progress and a long-time ally of both President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who also served in President Obama’s administration;²⁴
• Bill McKibben, radical environmentalist author and founder of 350.org;²⁵
• Michael Eric Dyson, a contributing writer for the New York Times;
• Soledad O’Brien, a left-of-center journalist;
• Melissa Harris-Perry, MSNBC host and writer for the left-progressive The Nation magazine. ²⁶

Recipients

Fellowship recipients Linda Sarsour and Charlene Carruthers have faced accusations of anti-Semitism as they have expressed support for avowed anti-Semitic leader Louis Farrakhan. ²⁷ Sarsour was given the $50,000 Fellowship for her work with the organization My Muslim Vote. ²⁸ My Muslim Vote is promoted by the Council on American-Islamic relations (CAIR). ²⁹ Another Roddenberry fellow, Alia Salem, was a leader of CAIR. ³⁰

Other Roddenberry fellows³¹ include the far-left activist and Black Lives Matter founder Alicia Garza. ³² Garza has aligned with Marxist ideology³³ and has expressed the view that the United States is homophobic, sexist, and racist and believes black people are targeted for destruction. Garza has stated that “whiteness has no shame,”³⁴ and believes the elimination of police is a viable solution to urban violence. ³⁵

Cristina Tzintzun is a progressive activist running for a U.S. Senate seat from Texas who supports the Green New Deal, government-run health care (“Medicare for All,”) and a $15 minimum wage. ³⁶

Alicia Nieves is the creator of the Streetwide mobile app, which alerts illegal immigrants on ICE activity to avoid deportation. ³⁷

Leadership

Lior Ipp is the CEO of the Roddenberry Foundation and has expressed the view that the United States was founded on racism and the persecution of immigrants, minorities, and women. ³⁸ After the election of President Donald Trump, Ipp participated in a Roddenberry Foundation board meeting where it was agreed to more actively focus on shifting funding towards left-of-center activists. ³⁹ Ipp acknowledged that the foundation might earn a reputation of Democratic partisanship but decided the risk was worth it. ⁴⁰

Ipp is responsible for shifting the foundation’s focus towards unusual climate change solutions. He claims that the areas of food waste, plant-rich diets, and female education would also help solve the climate change problem. ⁴¹ Ipp sees the foundation as leading the world in education of these emerging climate change strategies beyond the traditional focus on alternative energy sources. Ipp believes the foundation should invest in the areas of female education and women’s rights regardless of climate change. ⁴²

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