VP Biden (Effectively) Endorses Marriage Equality

Vice President Joe Biden made news and The White House sweat yesterday when he went on NBC's Meet The Press and said:

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.

Sure sounds like an endorsement of marriage equality to me, no? The only way American LGBT citizens can have exactly the same rights if they are married is if their state allows same-sex marriage and DOMA is repealed. The question is, was Vice President Biden endorsing both of these policy changes (his boss has already committed to the second, but is famously "evolving" on the first).

LGBT groups reacted with delight to the news of the second-highest ranking official in the United States government endorsing marriage equality.