Biden's comments on gay marriage question Obama's stance - Chicago News and Weather | FOX 32 News

Biden's comments on gay marriage question Obama's stance

Critics on bothsides of the gay marriage debate are complaining that President Obama's Administration is on both sides of the issue.

On Monday, Secretaryof Education Arne Duncan declared his support of same-sex marriage. He was answering a question sparked by comments Vice President Joe Biden made the night before.

"I am absolutely comfortable with the fact thatmen marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marryingare entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civilliberties. And, quite frankly, I don't see much of a distinction beyond that." -VP, Joe Biden

Asked if that means the White House is moving toward endorsing gay marriage, the President's press secretary appeared to read from a prepared response.

"The President is comfortable with, uh, same sex couples, as the Vice President said, having the same rights, civil rights and civil liberties as other Americans. That's why he has fought for those equal rights," White House press secretary Jay Carneys said.

Curiously,grassroots activists on both sides of the issue here in Chicago said they believed the President's already had a change of heart on the issue. Family PAC's Paul Caprio, a staunch of gay marriage, predicted these would be the President's words after November.

"Now that the election's over, I've changed my mind. I'm strongly in favor of same-sex marriage." 

Longtime gay rights activist Joe Murray claimed that, on same sex marriage, the President's careful positioning resembles what his former colleagues in Springfield are doing.

I think thePresident is doing what the lawmakers here in Illinois are doing around the issue of gay marriage," Murray said. "They want to get themselves elected into office. And then they'll do what they want to do.  That's not the type of leadership we're comfortable with.

Additionally, senior campaign advisor David Axelrod claimed that the Vice President's comments over the weekend were not new.