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![\"The](\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/AGs-Cup-pix.jpg\")
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<\/a>The 31st Annual AG Cup asked this specific question: \u201cShould the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands legalize same-sex marriages? Why or why not?<\/p>\n
When eventual winner Jastilliana took the podium, she held up her right hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cFive,\u201d she said. \u201cIt took five shots to kill Harvey Milk.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBang, bang, bang, bang, bang.\u201d<\/p>\n
That began the winning speech arguing in favor of same-sex marriage as it is a human rights issues \u201cabsolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jastilliana said there were some 1,373 rights and protections given to straight married couples that same-sex couples have never been afforded. These included benefits in social security, tax, family coverage, and hospital visitation rights.<\/p>\n
To her last point, she pointed to a 2000 case where a man was not allowed to enter the hospital room where his \u201cpartner died alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is real,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd this is unjust.\u201d<\/p>\n
She called out U.S. lawmaker Rick Santorum who reportedly said he would rather see a child raised with a father in prison than same-sex parents.<\/p>\n
Pointing to studies by major universities, she said there were \u201cno intellectual and social differences\u201d between children raised by straight or gay parents.<\/p>\n
Then she took on religion, saying that from a religious view the answer to religious marriage is an \u201cunresounding no.\u201d<\/p>\n
But despite this, \u201cthe CNMI is not a theocracy,\u201d she said. This was not an issue of religion, she said. It was a legal one, citing U.S. courts that upheld one\u2019s \u201cinherent right to love equally.\u201d<\/p>\n
As she ended her speech, she strung out a timeline for those in the audience to remember.<\/p>\n
It has been 152 years since American slaves were made free, 95 years since women got their right to vote, and 52 years since Martin Luther King Jr. described his \u201cdream.\u201d<\/p>\n
She indicated that the CNMI could join this movement in history.<\/p>\n
Now, she said, the CNMI can \u201creset our aim.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBang, bang, bang\u2026\u201d to inequality, she said.<\/p>\n
First-timer <\/strong><\/p>\n After 12 consecutive years of one school bagging the Attorney General\u2019s Cup, it took a first-timer like Jastillana to keep them from getting a baker\u2019s dozen.<\/p>\n Jastillana is a junior and the representative of Marianas High School at the 31st iteration of the speech competition held at the House of Justice yesterday.<\/p>\n \u201cThis topic, it\u2019s something [that] I\u2019m actually really passionate about because I do believe that I have like sisters who are lesbian, sisters who are gay and I really do think that they deserve the chance to be married,\u201d Jastillana said.<\/p>\n Her dramatic introduction to her speech, which literally started with a bang, was probably where she got the attention of the judges and floored them with the rest of what she had to say.<\/p>\n \u201c[Mr. Bobby Cruz] gave me the idea, I think, two days ago and I just loved it and I thought it would really work and I just thank him for that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Jastillana is the daughter of Maricar Lustre who was very proud of her daughter.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really so happy,\u201d Lustre said. \u201cShe really worked hard for it and I know it\u2019s all worth the hard work and everything so I\u2019m very thankful and grateful that she got it.\u201d<\/p>\n After she graduates in 2016, Jastillana hopes to attend college in the United States and is interested in a career in journalism.<\/p>\n Mount Carmel High School, after 12 years of winning, ended up garnering second place this year.<\/p>\n Its representative, now senior and last year\u2019s champion, Lazaro, was emotional after the awarding.<\/p>\n \u201cShe had great courage to say what she said. So [I\u2019m] very, very proud of her,\u201d coach Galvin Deleon Guerrero said after giving a consoling hug to Lazaro.<\/p>\n Third placer Punzalan, a senior at SSHS, is planning to pursue a major in political science in the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If the speeches in yesterday\u2019s Attorney General\u2019s Cup were any indication, future CNMI leaders would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":200584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900,4],"tags":[68,3322,26,1772],"class_list":["post-200581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-local-news","tag-ag","tag-annual-attorney-general","tag-cnmi","tag-marianas-high-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}