Parents of young Rhode Island girls may have recently become aware of a contest hosted by Governor Gina Raimondo’s office, with a Friday deadline.  As the official press release from the governor’s office explains:

Governor Gina M. Raimondo announced today the “Governor for a Day” essay contest as a way to encourage young girls to become leaders in their communities. This Women’s History Month initiative is open to girls in 5th through 8th grade throughout the state. The winning essayist will be named “Governor for a Day”, and spend a day this spring meeting and speaking with other leaders across state government.

“Every day I talk with young girls and women – from my own daughter to successful Rhode Island businesswomen – and I am reminded how important it is to expose young girls to the significance of public service,” Governor Raimondo said. “Girls should know that with hard work and dedication, the opportunities available to them here in Rhode Island are endless. This essay contest is a chance to engage us all in that conversation.”

In addition to the press release’s going out through the governor’s office, the instructions call for essays to be sent to either an official government email address or the governor’s communication office.

This is a clear and unambiguous violation of the Rhode Island Constitution, Article I, Section 2, which states (in part):

No otherwise qualified person shall, solely by reason of race, gender or handicap be subject to discrimination by the state, its agents or any person or entity doing business with the state.

In explicitly limiting this contest to girls, the governor is obviously discriminating based on “gender.”  Of course, it’s unlikely that any young Rhode Island men would go to the lengths of filing lawsuits, but organizations that profess to support individual rights should be ashamed if they take a pass on this one.

UPDATE (3/12/15 7:32 a.m.)

One civil rights group that’s willing to stand for principle, on this one, is the Stephen Hopkins Center for Civil Rights.  General Counsel Matthew Fabisch writes:

While the Governor’s goal of ‘exposing young girls to the significance of public service’ is laudable, such exposure for girls need not, and indeed, under both the state and federal constitutions, may not come at the expense of such exposure for boys. As a public official, Governor Raimondo is bound to administer all government programs in a gender neutral manner. The ‘Governor for a Day’ essay contest openly flaunts this duty by expressly limiting participation to girls.  As Rhode Island’s First Female Governor, Raimondo should seek to inspire all Rhode Island’s youth to public service. If the Governor continues to hold programs like this one, I wonder what my wife and I will tell our son when he asks why he can’t try to be governor for a day.