Prop. 8 judge outed?

In a Feb. 7 San Francisco Chronicle column, writers Philip Matier and Andrew Ross reported what many in the gay community have suspected all along: that California's Judge Vaughn Walker is gay.

Walker, the judge presiding over California's challenge of Proposition 8 -- the 2008 measure banning same-sex marriage -- has traditionally offered responses of "No comment" when asked about his sexuality.

Matier and Ross, however, do not believe that the judge's sexual orientation will have any bearing over his final ruling. "There is nothing about Walker as a judge to indicate that his sexual orientation, other than being an interesting factor, will in any way bias his view," Kate Kendell, head of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, told Matier and Ross.

Walker in fact represented the U.S. Olympics when the organization sought to keep San Francisco's Gay Olympics from using their name.

"Life is full of irony," Walker said in response to the case.

Organizations in opposition to the legalization of same-sex marriage have already begun speaking out. "Walker's entire course of conduct has only one sensible explanation: that Walker is hellbent to use the case to advance the cause of same-sex marriage," conservative Web site the National Review Online blogged early Sunday. "Given his manifest inability to be impartial, Walker should have recused himself from the beginning, and he remains obligated to do so now."

Considering Walker's history of mixed support for the LGBT community, however, many gay politicians do not believe his purported sexuality will interfere with the trial's outcome. Judge Walker did not choose to preside over the Prop. 8 case; it was assigned to him.