WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden says he’s “absolutely comfortable” with gay couples who marry getting the same civil rights and liberties as heterosexual couples, a stand that advocates interpreted as an endorsement of same-sex marriage.
The White House and President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, eager to avoid a debate on a hot-button social issue in an election year, insisted that Biden was not breaking ranks with Obama, who does not publicly support gay marriage.
Biden told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that marriage should be about being loyal to someone you love, whether that marriage is between a man and a woman, two men or two women. “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 in the interview broadcast Sunday.
Gay-rights advocates said Biden’s comments made him the highest-ranking member in the Obama administration to signal support for gay marriage.
