VP Joe Biden ENDORSES same-sex marriage

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Vice President Joe Biden became the highest-ranking official in the Obama administration to signal support for same-sex marriage on Sunday during an interview with "Meet The Press."

Biden stopped just a touch short from outright saying that he backs marriage equality. But the implication was beyond clear that he has completed the so-called evolution on gay marriage that President Obama has yet to finish.

"And you're comfortable with same-sex marriage now?" "Meet the Press" host David Gregory asked.

"I am vice president of the United States of America," Biden replied. "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."

There is a distinction between civil unions and gay marriage, of course, and the transcript of the Biden interview doesn't make it clear if he distinguishing between the two or blurring those lines. He would go on to duck a question about whether the president would come out for same-sex marriage during the second term in office, offering only the following when asked if he'd like to see that happen.

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.

Gay-rights leaders and much of the Democratic Party will cheer Biden's comments. But, as the Huffington Post reported several weeks ago, there remains some deep, political, trepidation among the president's political advisers over endorsing same-sex marriage before the election is over.

Indeed, almost instantaneously, the Obama campaign was trying to slice a fine line on the vice president's remark, declaring them no further along the evolutionary spectrum than where the president currently stands: "What VP said -- that all married couples should have exactly the same legal rights -- is precisely POTUS's position," tweeted David Axelrod, Obama's top political adviser.

Biden's office , however, would tell NBC's Chuck Todd, shorty after the "Meet the Press" interview concluded, that he was speaking on his own and not on behalf of the administration. - Huffington Post

• Category

  News & Politics

[howudoin135]

This makes me proud to be an American!

[Gustav Nordin]

Love is never wrong, it can never be a sin. you must stop hating and start to love. stop hate gays they dont mean you any harm

[trinketbox1]

Keep in mind, you cannot impeach someone who is not a U.S. citizen.

[autonomicus]

Hey Joe, me my sister daisy want to get hitched. If you support same sex marriage then we demand that you also support same family marriage. Just because there is a slight chance of birth defects, that's not a valid reason to deny us the same benefits as you think gay couples should have. If tests indicate that our baby has a defect we will simply abort it and try again. If it is born with hidden defects, so what? Normal couples have kids with Down syndrome all the time.

[Yellyist Wilsxon]

And impeachment?? Forgot it. The democrats control the senate, and there`s no way his own party is going to impeach him.

[Yellyist Wilsxon]

God is telling you??? Are you kidding me or something?

[nbnf21]

Listen to me if God is telling me this man will be president during this term and Obama won't last I believe him your words mean nothing to me.

[Michael Stenberg]

Like it or not, Gay marriage is a Civil RIGHTS issue. That ends the debate. This is AMERICA. None of our damn business...We should all feel the same way..ESPECIALLY the 2nd amendment defenders. If you support the Constitution then you have no business being against gay marriage.

[Yellyist Wilsxon]

The Vice president has been elected for four more years along with the president. Unless something very bad happens he will be Vice President until 2017.

[Niki Ehrhart]

Will & Grace

[nbnf21]

and I'm talking about his second term he won't finish 1,000