Joe Biden, vice president of the United States of America said Sunday that he was ‘comfortable’ with same-sex marriage. The White House was quick to officially add that the Obama administration is ‘still evolving’ on marriage equality.

Joe Biden said, ‘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 and women marrying another 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.’

Though Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples, his stance on same-sex marriage is yet to advance, and his official stance is that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

Gay rights activists are said to be frustrated by Team Obama’s counter-comment to Biden’s statement. U.S.News has suggested that in a race that can be decided by a couple of percentage points, the move was a tactic to make activists happy (that Obama may ‘evolve’), and keep independents appeased (with the speedy counter-response).

Claire Alexander