Speech to Persuade SAME-SEX MARRIAGES: WHY IT SHOULD BE LEGALIZED IN THE PHILIPPINES?

Thirteen countries (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Sweden) allow same-sex couples to marry nationwide, while New Zealand and Uruguay will allow it from August 2013. Same-sex marriages are also performed and recognised in Mexico City, Quintana Roo, and parts of the United States. Some jurisdictions that do not perform same-sex marriages but recognise it being performed elsewhere include: Israel, Aruba, Curaao and Sint Maarten, andMexico. Australia recognises same-sex marriages only if one partner has had gender reassignment therapy. Some analysts state that financial, psychological and physical well-being are enhanced by marriage, and that children of same-sex couples benefit from being raised by two parents within a legally recognized union supported by society's institutions. Court documents filed by American scientific associations also state that singling out gay men and women as ineligible for marriage both stigmatizes and invites public discrimination against them. Some organizations have described same-sex marriage as a universal human rights issue, equality before the law, and an important result of and cause for normalizing LGBT relationships. Several authors attribute opposition to same-sex marriage as coming from homophobia or heterosexism and liken prohibitions on samesex marriage to past prohibitions on interracial marriagebetween blacks and whites. Parenting Scientific literature indicates that parents' financial, psychological and physical well-being is enhanced by marriage and that children benefit from being raised by two parents within a legally recognized union (either a opposite-sex or same-sex union). As a result, professional scientific associations have argued for same-sex marriage to be legally recognized as it will be beneficial to the children of same-sex couples. Scientific research has been generally consistent in showing that lesbian and gay parents are as fit and capable as heterosexual parents, and their children are as psychologically healthy and well-adjusted as children reared by heterosexual parents. According to scientific literature reviews, there is no evidence to the contrary. Adoption Same-sex marriage can remove legal obstacles to the adoption of children by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons. Adoption can take the form of a joint adoption by a same-sex couple or adoption by one member of a same-sex couple of the other's biological child (step-parent adoption). All countries which allow same-sex marriage also allow joint adoption, with the exception of Portugal. In addition, several countries which do not have marriage equality nonetheless permit joint adoption: Brazil; most of the United Kingdom; Uruguay; Western Australia, NSW, and Canberra within Australia; Coahuilla in Mexico; a number of US states (Rhode Island, New Jersey, California, Indiana, Florida, Arkansas, Illinois, Oregon, Hawaii, Nevada, Delaware, and Guam); and in at least a few cases, Israel. Surrogacy and IVF treatment A gay or bisexual man has the option of surrogacy, the process in which a woman bears a child for another person through artificial insemination or carries another woman's surgically implanted fertilized egg to birth. A lesbian or bisexual woman has the option of artificial insemination The American Psychological Association stated in 2004: The institution of civil marriage confers a social status and important legal benefits, rights, and privileges. ... Same-sex couples are denied equal access to civil marriage. ... Same-sex couples who enter into a civil union are denied equal access to all the benefits, rights, and privileges provided by federal law to married couples ... The benefits, rights, and privileges associated with domestic partnerships are not universally available, are not equal to those associated with marriage, and are rarely portable ... Denial of access to marriage to same-sex couples may especially harm people who also experience discrimination based on age, race, ethnicity, disability, gender and gender identity, religion, and socioeconomic status ... the APA believes that it is unfair and discriminatory to deny same-sex couples legal access to civil marriage and to all its attendant benefits, rights, and privileges. The American Sociological Association stated in 2004: ... a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman intentionally discriminates against lesbians and gay men as well as their children and other dependents by denying access to the protections, benefits, and responsibilities extended automatically to married couples ... we believe that the official justification for the proposed constitutional amendment is based on prejudice rather than empirical research ... the American Sociological Association strongly opposes the proposed constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. The Canadian Psychological Association stated in 2006: The literature (including the literature on which opponents to marriage of same-sex couples appear to rely) indicates that parents' financial, psychological and physical well-being is enhanced by marriage and that children benefit from being raised by two parents within a legally-recognized union. As the CPA stated in 2003, the stressors encountered by gay and lesbian parents and their children are more likely the result of the way society treats them than because of any deficiencies in fitness to parent. The CPA recognizes and appreciates that persons and institutions are entitled to their opinions and positions on this issue. However, CPA is concerned that some are mis-interpreting the findings of psychological research to support their positions, when their positions

are more accurately based on other systems of belief or values. CPA asserts that children stand to benefit from the well-being that results when their parents' relationship is recognized and supported by society's institutions. The American Anthropological Association stated in 2005: The results of more than a century of anthropological research on households, kinship relationships, and families, across cultures and through time, provide no support whatsoever for the view that either civilization or viable social orders depend upon marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution. Rather, anthropological research supports the conclusion that a vast array of family types, including families built upon same-sex partnerships, can contribute to stable and humane societies. The American Academy of Pediatrics concluded in 2006, in an analysis published in the journal Pediatrics: There is ample evidence to show that children raised by same-gender parents fare as well as those raised by heterosexual parents. More than 25 years of research have documented that there is no relationship between parents' sexual orientation and any measure of a child's emotional, psychosocial, and behavioral adjustment. These data have demonstrated no risk to children as a result of growing up in a family with 1 or more gay parents. Conscientious and nurturing adults, whether they are men or women, heterosexual or homosexual, can be excellent parents. The rights, benefits, and protections of civil marriage can further strengthen these families. The United Kingdom's Royal College of Psychiatrists has stated: ... lesbian, gay and bisexual people are and should be regarded as valued members of society who have exactly similar rights and responsibilities as all other citizens. This includes the rights and responsibilities involved in a civil partnership. Health In 2010, a Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health study examining the effects of institutional discrimination on the psychiatric health of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals found an increase in psychiatric disorders, including a more than doubling of anxiety disorders, among the LGB population living in states that instituted bans on same-sex marriage. According to the author, the study highlighted the importance of abolishing institutional forms of discrimination, including those leading to disparities in the mental health and well-being of LGB individuals. Institutional discrimination is characterized by societal-level conditions that limit the opportunities and access to resources by socially disadvantaged groups. Gay activist Jonathan Rauch has argued that marriage is good for all men, whether homosexual or heterosexual, because engaging in its social roles reduces men's aggression and promiscuity. The data of current psychological and other social science studies on same-sex marriage in comparison to opposite-sex marriage indicate that same-sex and opposite-sex relationships do not differ in their essential psychosocial dimensions; that a parent's sexual orientation is unrelated to their ability to provide a healthy and nurturing family environment; and that marriage bestows substantial psychological, social, and health benefits. Same-sex couples and their children are likely to benefit in numerous ways from legal recognition of their families, and providing such recognition through marriage will bestow greater benefit than civil unions or domestic partnerships. In 2009, a pair of economists at Emory University tied the passage of state bans on same-sex marriage in the US to an increase in the rates of HIV infection. The study linked the passage of a same-sex marriage ban in a state to an increase in the annual HIV rate within that state of roughly 4 cases per 100,000 population Gay Marriages Will Help Stabilize Society Generally: Conservatives who usually oppose gay marriage argue, correctly, that stable families are a cornerstone to a stable society. Families are the smallest social unit in society and trends in the family inevitably affect trends in society as a whole - and vice-versa, of course. Allowing gays to marry will help better integrate them and their relationships into society. Ensuring that gay relationships are stable and receive support will benefit the stability of society overall. Opponents of gay marriage argue that it would undermine the institution of marriage, but it's hard to see how more marriages would be bad for marriage. If anything harms marriage, it is bad marriages where people don't take marriage seriously - and that's already too common with heterosexuals. If gay couples in committed relationships are able to formalize their unions as marriages, that can only serve to improve marriage overall by providing more positive role models. Issue with the Catholic Church While I understand why Catholic LGBTs want to carve a more tolerant space within the Catholic faith, the more strategic battleground is in the Constitution, not the Bible says Jonas Bagas, Akbayan coordinator of LGBT. Same-sex marriage is understandably a sensitive religious issue, but it is above all about our sectarian values about basic fairness and our constitutional rights, about human dignity regardless of the sex of the people we love. We should be engaging and reforming the state and make it modern, inclusive, and truly representative.