Judge David Young doesn't mind being known as “the gay judge”, but he really is much more than that. He hopes his new court room show will allow him to showcase the same humanity in daytime television that he brought to his criminal courtroom in Florida. He's intensely proud of the work he did as part of Miami 's pilot program Judicial Probation Monitoring, which worked to get drug addicts clean and productive rather than simply locking them up.

He believes his courtroom show will be different because he's going to run it with heart, humor and the occasional show tune, if that's what it takes to get his point across. The honorable Judge Young recently took the time to chat with us.

AfterElton.com: Are you sick to death of being referred to as the "gay" judge?
David Young: Oh, not at all. I'd rather be called the Brad Pitt judge, but if I can't have that, the gay judge is fine. I'm gay and I'm a judge and I understand that I'm the first one, and breaking new ground and that's an incredible challenge and an incredible opportunity that I'm just relishing, to be quite honest with you.

AE: There are already quite a few judge shows out there. Why another one?
DY: Probably because they wanted something different. The court genre is very popular and it's popular because people, although they love conflict, they want to see resolution. And at the end of this show, you know where the judge stands and what makes mine different than the other judge shows is there's going to be a message attached to it. I'm going to decide cases in a unique way that has never been before on national television.

AE: Unique how?
DY: With humor, with compassion, and if a show tune comes into it, I may sing something. You just never know. But I'm going to be making a point and every show is going to have a point to it. I was always taught in school, learning is fun and if you make people enjoy it, they're going to get something out of it, whereas so many of the other shows, they're yelling and screaming and belittling and when people yell at you, you shut down

AE: On the show you occasionally talk about Scott, your partner, and "camp" it up a bit. Was that ever an issue for the producers or did they tell you to go for it?
DY: [singing] I gotta be me! It's all part of it, it's all part of who I am and the producers knew it when we got into it and they've been incredibly supportive.

AE: As a judge, do you worry shows like this trivialize the law and the courtroom?
DY: I'm going to answer that question in two ways. Number one: a lot of new judges who get on the bench try to emulate Judge Judy and that ilk. I served on the Judicial Qualifications Commission for the state of Florida and I can't tell you how many legitimate complaints we had from individuals complaining about a judge's temperament.

In that sense, we have to take it very seriously that we are judges, but on the other hand, I think we have to comport ourselves to be human beings at the same time and Judy's type of behavior is not acceptable in a real courtroom. But this is television. You can call people down, but my style is not to belittle, belittle, belittle. It's more therapeutic. I'm a firm believer in therapeutic jurisprudence. And if you could ease the tension, and you can demystify by breaking out into song, or talking as a human being to another human being, it's amazing what you can accomplish.

AE: I don't know if you've followed some of the debate in the blogosphere about the show, but the gay community seems somewhat divided over it. There are those who are bothered by what they see as stereotypes such as "Justice with a snap!" slogan and ads that tout the fact you sometimes burst into show tunes. For those folks, it seems like another portrayal of gay men as campy queens -- a term you used once yourself. Others think it's just a great thing to see a judge who happens to be gay. What are your thoughts?
DY: Have them watch the show. When they watch the show, they're not going to see a Jack McFarland. They're going to see someone with almost 15 years of experience, someone who knows the law, someone who's no nonsense, someone who's compassionate, someone who's thoughtful. And if something comes along and I can be a little campy to make a point, to get it through somebody's head, to make a difference in their lives, I'm gonna do it.

AE: Did any stations or markets decline the show because of the gay aspect?
DY: I haven't heard of any. (Editor's note: The show is cleared in 91% of the country so far.)

AE: Were you out as a prosecutor or as a judge?
DY: I was not out as a prosecutor. I was out as a judge after my first year. I was laying on the beach one day and I read a book and I said, you know, I don't want to be 70 years old and find love. That's just not acceptable. My whole life is escaping me and I said, okay, I'm going to be true to myself, and I came out and the world didn't come to an end.

AE: Did you ever have to rule against a gay person or couple because of biased laws that you had to follow?
DY: No, never had that. I had a case where it was a gay-bashing incident outside of Twist, a gay bar in Miami. This was before we had hate-crimes legislation. The public defender, of all people, came up to me and said, “Judge, I gotta ask you a question. This occurred outside of Twist. Can you be fair?”

I said to him, “Greg, if I were an African-American and this was a crime involving an African-American, would you ask me that question? If I were a woman, and this were a rape case, would you ask me that question? And if this was a hate crime case dealing with anti-Semitism and my being Jewish, would you ask me that question? If the answer to all those questions is no, then you should not be asking that question, now should you? He apologized and went back into court.