Born On This Day- February 29th... Pedro Pablo Zamora

I was still in my 30s when the San Francisco Real World premiered in 1992 on MTV, I smartly stopped watching The Real World, or for that matter, MTV, when I turned 40. The Real World was the start a standard fir reality TV shows: It threw together rednecks, party girls, virgin Christians, substance abusers, goody-2-shoes, gay people & douchey bike messengers & allowed them to fight their tiny culture wars on TV.

Through the 27 seasons, Pedro Zamora, of The Real World: San Francisco in 1994, its 3rd season, continues to make an impression.

Zamora was a Cuban American gay man who died from complications from HIV the day after the San Franciscoseason finale aired. Zamora was diagnosed with HIV in his junior year of high school, & by age 19, he had embarked on a career as an AIDS educator. When the opportunity arose to audition for a spot on The Real World, he saw it as a chance to further his message of AIDS awareness.

The young HIV educator, he was just 22 when he died, was always on message. He brought a scrapbook of his education work to show his cast mates, immediately lectured them on HIV transmission & took them along on his speaking gigs. He & his boyfriend, Sean Sasser, had a tear-jerking commitment ceremony before the cameras. Anyone who saw that season's The Real World cannot get Zamora's story out of their minds.

2009’s- Pedro is a very moving biopic by MTV &  The Real World creators & written by Dustin Lance Black who won an Oscar for Milk. He was still in the closet at the time. The film also includes a reenactment of phone call of appreciation to Zamora & his family. Clinton also introduces the film. In 2010, Pedro writers Dustin Lance Black & Paris Barclay were nominated for a Writers Guild Award. Pedro also received a Humanitas Prize nomination & a GLAAD Media Award nomination for Outstanding TV Movie or Mini-Series at the 21st GLAAD Media Awards.

Once The Real Worldseason ended filming, & Zamora fell fatally ill after taping, cast members Pam Ling & Judd Winick rushed cross-country to his side. Their friendship deepened & together they embraced their friend's cause. A year after they moved out of the spotlight, they moved in together. Pam became an M.D. specializing in HIV health issues & Judd writes Green Lantern for DC Comics. They are now married & living in San Francisco. Armistead Maupin spoke at theor ceremony.

Winick’s graphic novel, Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss, & What I Learned, was published in September 2000. It was awarded 6 American Library Association awards, was nominated for an Eisner Award, & won Winick his first GLAAD award.

In his short life, Pedro Zamora did much to advance  awareness & understanding of HIV, as well as to advance a generation's acceptance of homosexuality. His partner- Sean Sasser is a pastry chef in Portland & my neighbor. When he married Zamora in a commitment ceremony at the Real World house, the audience was not horrified, as they might have been just a decade earlier, but charmed. The romance was,15 years later, nominated for "Favorite Love Story" out 26 seasons of cast members dating & falling in love. Zamora both educated & inspired a generation.

 
Zamora would have been 12 years old, or 40 years old today. No matter how you count it, it would be a been a better world if he was still with us.