Cameron Kirsten - Rafe Torres

Rafael "Rafe" Torres is a lawyer who first appeared on December 1, 2008. He is portrayed by Yani Gellman. He is the first "openly" gay male character on The Young and the Restless in its 39-year history. During an interview with Michael Fairman on Advocate.com, Gellman talked about his character, and the fact that he didn't know about Rafe's sexuality going into The Young and the Restless. He also stated he had no reservations about portraying a gay character.

History
Rafael Torres was a lawyer introduced during Ana Hamilton's foster care battle. He was a longtime friend of Billy Abbott. Rafe also worked as Adam Wilson's lawyer when he was prosecuted for forging the incriminating diary of his father, Victor Newman, and helped out Billy in the custody battle for his daughter with Chloe, Delia. It was also revealed that the Newman's housekeeper, Estella Munoz, was Rafe's aunt.

Rafe was revealed to be gay when Lily Winters, unaware of his sexual orientation, attempted to set him up on a date with Colleen Carlton. After a matter of fact revelation of his being gay, the two agreed to be friends. After his aunt, Estella, was accused of gaslighting Ashley Abbott, he became determined to prove his aunt's innocence. After talking with Nikki Newman about who might really be behind the gaslighting, he became suspicious of his friend and former client Adam. However, when Rafe went to the Newman Ranch to accuse a house-arrested Adam, Adam tried to distract Rafe by seducing him. He lied to Rafe telling him he had feelings for him. A conflicted Rafe decided to believe him, revealing that he had actually been feeling the same way about Adam. It wasn't what Adam expected to hear, but this did not stop his seduction. Later, the two men had a sexual encounter.

Though it was not shown onscreen, the seduction scene stopped just before a kiss between them and then, when their scene later resumed, Adam and Rafe were shown putting back on their clothes. Post-sexual encounter, Rafe told Adam that he understood that Adam was in love with Heather and knew how negatively Genoa City viewed him, so perhaps Adam was just sexually confused. Rafe explained that he needed to leave, but told Adam that he would stay with Adam (presumably to have more sex) if it was what he wanted. Adam, who was visually shaken by the entire homosexual encounter he'd initiated just to keep Rafe from discovering his lies, tried to remain calm and told Rafe to go citing that because Adam was on house-arrest at the Ranch, Victor would often walk into his bedroom without knocking. As soon as Rafe had left, Adam immediately called Heather and asked her to come over. Once she arrived, he almost immediately initiated sex with her—seemingly to get his mind off what had just happened between him and Rafe.

As the story of Ashley's gaslighting continued (and was seemingly resolved—with his Aunt Estella being proven innocent and insane Patty Williams being wrongly accused instead of the guilty Adam), Rafe was not seen as often. Rafe has recently been acting as Billy Abbott's attorney, and has been helping Billy write an article to expose Adam.

In July 2012, Rafe returned to the canvas as Abby Newman's legal counsel after her publicity stunt involving a staged kidnapping with Carmine Basco. Abby wanted Rafe to take Carmine's case as well, but he was unable to handle both cases as well. Rafe was able to get Abby to accept a deal including a fine and community service offered by District Attorney Michael Baldwin and Ronan Malloy. After Abby's deal, he was convinced to take on Carmine's case as well, explaining to Abby that the circumstances make it very unlikely Carmine will be able to get a deal like hers, if at all.