I had a “debate” type class as well. I was always arguing from emotion (even though I wasn’t supposed to). I am one of those people who believes that is the reason we debate in the first place. If it is something important to you then go for it. You can always give the disclaimer that it is personal to you. Or not. But if it is something that would leave you vulnerable then I wouldn’t go there. Take care of yourself first. You know what is right. I agree with the statement of “trust your instincts”. And don’t take others opinions personally. People just get caught up in “arguing”.
Here is an example from my debate class. This time it wasn’t my emotions. I think about this still to this day. It made a huge difference.
We were asked to debate Dr. Assisted Suicide. The teacher handed out the sides, and I didn’t really care too much because I was on the fence. We got Against. So after doing research on it I really felt against it. But I was just caught up in the research I had done regardless of how I really felt. So during our actual debate I was arguing against it. Then it came time for the classmates to ask questions and participate. One guy raises his hand and said his mother had severe medical issue and finally resorted to Dr. Assisted Suicide. Yikes! It was really heart wrenching. I politely said that I am glad she had that option but I continued the debate. (I still feel bad to this day even though he didn’t take it personally and I didn’t say anything rude, in fact later he told me he thought I was cool or something, lol). I don’t know if that adds anything to my response or not besides letting you know that people argue from emotion all the time even when you don’t realize it.