Here comes the judge...

The first time I met Judge David Young, he was kind of a good luck charm. He was presiding over a lunchtime drawing at the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Assn. convention in San Diego and pulled me name out of a hat and I won some DVDs!

The judge and I were face-to-face again on the red carpet of the Daytime Emmy Awards recently. He was up for an award and was there with his partner, Judge Scott Bernstein.

"Judge David Young" premiered last September and made Young the first openly gay TV judge. He presides over small claims court cases on the show, far different from the
America West Flight 556 case - in which two America West Airlines pilots were convicted of trying to fly a plane while drunk - which he presided over while still oin the bench.

Does being gay make a difference when you're a judge? "I dress better than most," he joked. "No. When you decide cases, you decide cases on law, based upon fact."

His thoughts on the recent gay marriage ruling by the California Supreme Court: "Marriage is the last bastion of discrimination that we have in this country and it's time that the walls come knocking down and I'm very happy with what happened in California."

The judge said that when gay marriage is legalized in his home state of Florida, he and Bernstein will get married.

How did they meet?"We met at a law firm Christmas party," he said. "We've been together 13 years."