I wouldn't make a recommendation to a client based upon an immutable characteristic of a judge, such as race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, etc. unless I had specific and real evidence of  bias. In a case like your hypothetical, I'd worry more about things like a judge's record on getting reversed on denying suppression motions than whether he was gay.  I don't give much credence to the old lawyer gossip you cite, which is just the same innuendo still applied by old lawyers to other judges who aren't white, old, heterosexual men.  I know lawyers who always bump female judges because they think they'll be unfavorable to men.  I also know lawyers who bump black judges for similarly baseless reasons.  It speaks volumes about the lawyer, nothing about the judge they're preempting, and they don't seem to get better results. 

I routinely preempt judges who have displayed biases that their "lifestyle" would not telegraph. 

Judge Carlson is more or less right:  little has changed.