The US Vice President, Joe Biden is sure able
to make headlines. On Meet the Press, the vice president . expressed his
“evolving” thoughts about gay marriage, explaining that-while Obama sets the
policies-he personally believes all couples deserve equal rights. Biden said “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”.
Here is an excerpt from the
interview.
Gregory: You write
social policy. I'm curious. You know, the president has said that his views on
gay marriage, on same sex marriage, have evolved. But he's opposed to it. You
are opposed to it. Have your views evolved?
Biden: Look -- I just
think that, uh, the good news is that as more and more Americans come to
understand what this is about, it's a simple proposition. Who do you love? Who
do you love? And will you be loyal to the person you love? And that's what
people are finding out. It's what all marriages, at their root, are about.
Whether they're marriages of lesbians, or gay men, or heterosexuals.
That's what you believe
now?
That's what I believe!
And you're comfortable
with same sex marriage now?
Look. I'm Vice President
of the United States of America. 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 – 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.
In a second term, will
this administration come out behind same sex marriage? The institution of
marriage?
Well, I, I can't speak
to that. Uh, I, I, I, I don't know the answer to that. But I can tell you --
Sounds like you'd like
to see it happen. If that's where the president ...
Well, 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 can't
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 began
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, they're beginning to understand that this -- as a
base! -- I, uh, was speaking to a group of gay leaders in Los Angeles last, two
weeks ago. And one gentleman looked at me in the question period and said, let
me ask you, how do you feel about us? And I had just walked in to the backdoor
of this gay couple and their, their two adopted -- and I turned to the man who
owned the house, and said: What did I do when I walked in? He said: You walked
right to my children. They were seven and five, and giving you flowers. And I
said, I wish every American could see the look of love those children have in
their eyes for you guys, and they wouldn't have any doubt what this is about.
Watch the interview below: