The City of Rockville’s official public information office sent out an e-mail recently highlighting “Volunteer Rockville” and posting talking points about the upcoming city-wide election that has ballot questions, one of which, if passed, may give non-citizens the ability to vote in city elections in the future. You can see a screen shot here of the intro, and the public link to the full newsletter is here.
Also included in the newsletter was a section called “Agents of Change / Organizations Serving the Community”. The City of Rockville, Maryland then chooses to highlight something called the “Rainbow Youth Alliance”. Screen capture below:
The newsletter then goes on to state (lifted from the ‘Youth Alliance’ website) that “Rainbow Youth Alliance supports the community of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and questioning teens and their allies – known as rainbow teens. RYA envisions a future in which rainbow teens have access to safe, nurturing environments where they are respected, listened to, and given information and skills.
RYA is for high school youth from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. While located in Montgomery County, youth from D.C. and surrounding counties are welcome to join.”
I am always curious about the non-profits that Rockville, or Montgomery County, chooses to spotlight in its “official communications” because as we at CleanSlateMoCo.com have shown time and time again, a lot of these non-profits aren’t necessarily spotlighted or funded by our tax dollars because of their mission success, but who they know (and help support) in power. So I briefly looked into the “Alliance” to see if a similar web of influence exists, at least on the surface. Nothing jumped out initially.
But, it turns out to be an “Alliance” of one. On its website, Rainbow Youth Alliance claims the following as sponsors (screen grab below is from June, 2023):
But links to two of the three “sponsors” don’t exist – because these organizations don’t seem to exist anymore. The “Brother Help Thyself” (BHT) Foundation dissolved as a non-profit in November 2021 according to this article at MetroWeekly.com. There is no foundation website under this name (BHT). The Safe Spaces Project says it is a project of glaad.org. That organization still very much exists and is active in this area of policy/advocacy – but the project doesn’t appear to exist anymore. I received a 404 Page Not Found! error when trying to go to https://glaad.org/tags/safe-space-project.
So the Rainbow Youth Alliance is really an “Alliance” of one organization. And that organization is the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Rockville. This is also proven when one goes clicks on the “Donate Now” icon on the Rainbow Youth Alliance home page. Here is a screen cap taken June, 2023:
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Rockville self-describes as a “liberal” religion:
“Unitarian Universalism (UU) is a liberal religion—that is, a faith that keeps an open mind to the religious questions people have struggled with in all times and places.
We believe that religious authority doesn’t come from any one book or person or institution, but from within ourselves. We rely on personal experience, conscience, and reason as the final authorities in our faith.
Although our historical roots are in the Jewish and Christian traditions, we also draw from humanist teachings, earth-centered traditions, wisdom from the world’s religions, and our own experiences of life and spirit.”
So, in short, the whole thing seems a bit misleading. This is not an “alliance” nor even a stand-alone non-profit organization dedicated to issue advocacy or lobbying for at-risk youth, despite the reference as such. Sure, you can donate to a “fund” under the church’s ‘umbrella’ – but where is the public accounting for it? I saw no form 990 or accounting statement on the website of RYA.
This is wholly run by the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Rockville. This ‘congregation’ appears to be under the Unitarian Universalist Association, which does describe itself as a church per this post in 2019 on their own website. Screen shot is below:
By the way, yes, these appear to be the same folks that brought you these insufferable yard signs (and social media banners) you’ll see from time to time in MoCo neighborhoods, or at least they copied the exact same language:
The City of Rockville appears, via this official city e-mail communication, to be aligning itself with a particular church and a particular religion. At least be open and fully transparent about the alignment and what you are asking residents to support.
Related posts:
Looking Behind the Curtain of “Progressive Maryland Liberation Alliance PAC” & the Nonresidents Who Smeared Esther Wells
Re-Branded as “Action Youth Media”, Gandhi Brigade Youth Media (a MoCo Taxpayer Grantee) Still Appears to be Promoting Only Certain Types of “Activism” Through Art
City of Rockville ‘Charter Review Commission’ Recommends Non-citizen Voting, Lowering Voting Age 16