During an interview with ‘Meet the Press,’ vice president Joe Biden became the highest official in the Obama administration to show support for same-sex marriage. Biden did not completely say he agrees with marriage equality but he came very close to saying so.
The host of the show, David Gregory, asked,
“And you’re comfortable with same-sex marriage now?”
“I am vice president of the United States of America,” Biden said. “The president sets the policy. I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly, I don’t see much of a distinction — beyond that.”
Biden said the following when asked if Obama would campaign for same-sex marriage during a second term in the White House:
“The president continues to fight, whether it’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell or whether it is making sure, across the board that you cannot discriminate. Look [at] the executive orders he’s put in place: Any hospital that gets federal funding, which is almost all of them, they can’t deny a partner from being able to have access to their partner who’s ill or making the call on whether or not they — you know — it’s just — this is evolving.
And by the way, my measure, David, and I take a look at when things really begin to change, is when the social culture changes. I think “Will and Grace” probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody’s ever done so far. And I think — people fear that which is different. Now they’re beginning to understand.”
David Axelrod, the top political adviser for Obama, tweeted the following:
“What VP said — that all married couples should have exactly the same legal rights — is precisely POTUS’s position.”
A spokesperson for Biden clarified his remarks after the show, noting that Biden never gave complete support for same-sex marriage:
“The vice president was saying what the president has said previously – that committed and loving same-sex couples deserve the same rights and protections enjoyed by all Americans, and that we oppose any effort to rollback those rights. That’s why we stopped defending the constitutionality of section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act in legal challenges and support legislation to repeal it. Beyond that, the Vice President was expressing that he too is evolving on the issue, after meeting so many committed couples and families in this country.”
