AIDS activist and reality television pioneer Pedro Zamora joined the cast of The Real World to help raise HIV awareness. What he didn’t expect was to fall in love in front of America.
When The Real World: San Francisco premiered in 1994, roommate Pedro Zamora was the first authentic gay person that most Americans had ever seen on television.
A Cuban immigrant who was HIV+, the hardships faced by Zamora within the microcosm of the show and within society at large became the series’ most prominent and emotional storyline.
But while Zamora participated in the show in order to raise HIV awareness, he also unexpectedly found love under the harsh television lights. Zamora had been friends with fellow activist Sean Sasser for years, but when they wound up living in the same city, their relationship blossomed into something more.
Though at first Zamora requested that he be allowed to date Sasser off-camera (which the producers granted), eventually their relationship became solid enough to withstand the scrutiny of reality television and the two brought their romance into the spotlight.
The reactions of the various roommates were as fascinating as the love story itself, with straight roommate Judd Winick coming to Zamora’s side as his closest confidant in the house. David “Puck” Rainey, on the other hand, was downright hostile to Zamora, and the loftmates responded by evicting Puck from the house in order to lessen the strain on Pedro’s system.
In a television first, Pedro and Sean exchanged vows in a commitment ceremony on the show. But sadly, following filming, Zamora’s health deteriorated rapidly. He died on November 11th, a day after the last Real World episode aired.
Pedro Zamora and Sean Sasser are historic figures in terms of visibility of all kinds (gay, interracial, HIV), and their story is romantic, bittersweet, and inspiring. It’s criminal that it hasn’t been adapted into a feature film.
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