It's okay to be 'gay' and marry, says US vice-president

Social deal

US Vice President Joe Biden said on Sunday he was “absolutely comfortable” with allowing same-sex couples to marry, staking out a position on a hot-button social issue that appeared to differ from that of his boss, President Barack Obama.

In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Biden was pressed on whether the Obama administration would seek to legalise gay marriage in a second White House term. He said he personally was open to the change. “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 one another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties,” Biden said.

Obama has said he favors civil unions but has stopped short of endorsing gay marriage. However, Obama has also said his views on the issue were evolving. 

An endorsement of gay marriage could help energise core Democratic supporters ahead of the November election but it could also run the risk of alienating some independent voters who hold more conservative views on social issues.

Senior Obama campaign aide David Axelrod sought to play down any differences between Biden and the president, writing on Twitter that Biden was saying that “all married couples should have exactly the same legal rights.”

Axelrod said that was “precisely” Obama’s position.

A Biden spokesperson said 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.”

“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,” the spokesperson added.