Out Personalities: June 2008 Archives

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."

Here's a another picture of Lance Bass and Kathy Griffin from earlier this week. I didn't realize Lance was still dropping his pants for girls! He's so cute.

Reichen Lemkuhl and Ryan Berry were the picture of bliss the other night at The Abbey during the Love and Pride Commitment Ceremony. The two best looking guys in the room were both wearing white but they aren't getting married anytime soon. "That's the question of the day," Ryan remarked to me after the umpteenth time he was asked about it.

The couple had a widely-publicized falling out a few months ago but have clearly patched things up. Reichen told me: "We're doing OK. We're happy to be here. We're not getting married today but we're really happy for those that can."

Ryan added: "I say ditto."

Even though he and Ryan and not ready to take the marital plunge, I wanted to get Reichen's thoughts on same-sex marriage becoming legal in California: "I thought, 'Finally. It's about time.' It just makes sense. It's a situation where you really weigh the constitutionality of taking away someone's rights. It just doesn't work in this country."

It had slipped Reichen's mind that season three of "Dante's Cove" was released on Tuesday but he was happy to talk about the show that has given him his most substantial acting role to date. He more than held his own among the more experienced cast and will be back for the fourth season as Trevor.

"He had a little bit of actiivity last season when he was new to Dante's Cove but rumor has it that he's coming back with a vengeance this season so I'm excited about that. We were going to start production this summer but the scare of an actors strike has sort of halted everything. So we're waiting to hear when it makes more sense to go ahead and start production because we';ll be shooting either in Hawaii or New Zealand. You don't want to get all your stuff out there if everyone's on strike. But it is going to happen, it's just a matter of when."

Ryan is busy too these days and on Thursday hosted a LA Gay Pride Kick-off bash held by Armani and Out Magazine benefitting the Young Professional's Council: "I support anything that helps people come out and being true to themselves and shaking off that double life," he said.