This morning Vice President Joseph Biden endorsed same-sex marriage during an appearance on the television show Meet The Press this morning (Sunday May 6th).
According to ThinkProgress.org:
Vice President Joe Biden has endorsed same-sex marriage, becoming the highest ranking American official to back marriage for gay and lesbian people. His comments signify a split within the Obama administration and may pave the way for President Obama — who says he supports civil unions and is still evolving on the matter — to also embrace equality.
ThinkProgress also quotes the VP as saying that the television show Will & Grace helped progress his views (Shout out to David Kohan!), but cautions that it is not him, but the President who sets policy.
BIDEN: Look, I am 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 marrying women 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. […] I think Will & Grace probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody has done so far. People fear that is different and now they’re beginning to understand.
What do you think? Will Joe Biden’s statement change the course of American history in regards to marriage rights for same-sex couples? Will President Obama follow suit?
Do you agree that shows like Will & Grace and Modern Family help change the public perception of what homosexuality looks like?
I think a reference to “Will and Grace” did not really do him any favors. Has he watched TV in the last 10 years? (Come to think of it, maybe that’s the message – “I’m not up on the latest TV shows, because I’m too busy doing more important things.”) Perhaps I’m a little biased because I never really got into Will & Grace. To my mind all four main characters had essentially the same annoying personality. I think “Modern Family” may be a more influential example. The same-sex couple is a source of humor, but the same amount of… Read more »
This is nothing more than calculated political posturing. This allows the administration to appease those who are disgruntled by Obama’s silence on/ refusal to support gay marriage by pointing to Biden and saying half of the presidential ticket supports it. It’s just enough to keep them on the bandwagon, and since Biden’s already known as a liberal mind anyway it changes nothing about him or support for him. On the other side of the ticket, though, it allows Obama to keep in his court those independents and moderates who *don’t* support gay marriage (including a significant number of religious black… Read more »
I don’t think Biden’s statement changes much. The media portrayals of homosexuals probably had some impact. I remember when civil unions were first debated. I thought that was a great idea. When same sex marriage was first debated, I thought no, no, no, not now. It wasn’t that I was against same sex marriage. I was afraid that the forces opposing it were still strong enough to block it. I was afraid of a constitutional amendment or several blocking it. I looked at the demographic data and noticed that there was strongest support among younger people and strongest opposition among… Read more »
The political climate would have to be juuuuuust right for this to be a game changer. Who knows, maybe it will be. But the Veep disagreeing with the POTUS on this issue is nothing new. Dick Cheney (much as I despise him) differed with his president for 8 years on this issue and it made not a bit of difference.
I definitely think that the more positive (and realistic) media portrayals of same-sex couples, the better. I think where Will & Grace fell short was on the ‘realistic’ factor, considering it was a sit-com and thus pretty outrageous sometimes. I think that shows that have lgbt guest appearances (like In Plain Sight) shouldn’t be overlooked, either. When they do it well, those appearances do a lot to show an integrated view of lgbt individuals. They aren’t living in their own little bubble (a la Queer as Folk or Will & Grace)…they’re in the larger world too. As for whether Biden’s… Read more »