A Vietnam war veteran, Technical Sergeant Leonard P.

Matlovich was quoted as saying, “when I was in

the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.”

To our honourable moderator Atty. Anfred Panes, to my classmates and to our worthy opponents in the
negative side, good day!

As the first speaker of the affirmative side, it is my duty to present arguments favourable to our stand
that it is indeed necessary to legalize same-sex marriage in the Philippines. And it is also my duty to lay
down our definition of terms for the words to be considered in this argument.

First, same sex marriage is defined as a marriage between two people of the same biological sex or
gender identity.

Second, Legalize means to make something legal or to allow something by Law.

Discrimination is unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things

Ladies and Gents, there is a necessity of legalizing same sex marriage in the Philippines because of the ff:

(1. ARGUMENT) Not allowing same-sex marriage is an issue of equal rights and a form of discrimination
for same-sex couples.

From our definition of terms, discrimination is defined as unjust or prejudicial treatment of different
categories of people or things. So not allowing same-sex couples to get married contradicts the equality
that this country supposedly stands for: First, same-sex couples are not being granted the benefits
enjoyed by heterosexual married couples. Many benefits are only available to married couples, such as
taxation and inheritance rights, access to family health coverage.

Second, in Article 3, Section 1 of the 1987 Constitution states that, “No person shall be deprived of life,
liberty, or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of
the laws. There is a certain kind of happiness when a relationship of two people is recognized by law as a
lawful union called marriage. This special kind of happiness that I’m referring to is a joy that felt by a
bride during her marriage. Why should we deprive same sex couples of this joy and privilege of
formalizing and legalizing their union? Simply because they have the same sex? It is very discriminatory.

According to Lauren Milan, a famous netizen/blogger about issues in same sex marriage, “Denying
marriage to two individuals with the same sex who loves each other is to deny them a fundamental
freedom. “

According to the US supreme court it was declared in 1974’s Cleveland Board of Education v. Lafleur that
the “freedom of personal choice in matters of marriage and family life is one of the liberties protected
by due clause.”. Thus banning same sex marriage is unconstitutional.

Also, denying same-sex couples the right to marry stigmatizes gay and lesbian families inferior and sends
the message that it is acceptable to discriminate against them. The Massachusetts Supreme Court wrote
in an opinion to the state Senate on Feb. 3, 2004 that offering civil unions was not an acceptable
alternative to gay marriage because "...it is a considered choice of language that reflects a demonstrable
assigning of same-sex, largely homosexual, couples to second-class status."

My proposition is that there is no substantial distinction between a person who is born biologically as a
woman who is heterosexual or straight and the person born biologically as a man but has the true
feelings of a woman. …