Remembering Pedro Zamora, 30 Years after his Death from AIDS

He was exhausting. “I am the most important person in the room because I am dying of AIDS”.

And the DL Cunt R1 arrives right on time.

It's hard for me to believe that TV show was already 30 years ago.

I think Pedro gave the disease visibility to American young people that it wouldn't have had without the show, at the time. This was a real person, a sweet guy, that everyone liked, who we all saw die from this awful disease. You couldn't ignore it. Powerful.

I think I remember Bill Clinton recording video that was played at his funeral.

Has Puck commented?

The representation that Pedro brought can’t be overemphasized.

It's nice that Judd commented. He always seemed like a good guy.

I don't think people realize what it was like back then to be HIV+ or have AIDS.

Judd is still married to Pam, who is a physician / professor of medicine at UCSF.

Two of them became MAGA cunts.

Judd and Pam are two of my favorite public figures ever. Damned good people.

Rachel was MAGA before there was MAGA. She married someone from another season.

You can see what a piece of work Rachel is at a very zoomed in level on Real World.

R12 Rachel married Wisconsin congressman Sean Duffy, who was on THE REAL WORLD: BOSTON (1997) with lesbian icon Genesis.

It's hard to overstate the impact sweet Pedro had on little gaylings growing up in the 90s. I'm a geriatric millennial (child of the 80s and 90s) and it was incredible seeing his story on The Real World. I know his impact was felt beyond young gays and no doubt changed some hearts and minds back then... a time of such darkness and homophobia.

I always wanted Judd deep inside me.

Was Genesis out? Or was she closeted? What a name. Sounds like a skank or stripper name. But she seems like an OK person.

Rachel is a cunt.

I fucked Cory behind a dumpster at the fish market while Puck watched. So many levels of irony…….

Rachel let Puck fuck her in the ass so she could be a virgin. At least according to a drunken Puck.

Shame R1 made it through and Pedro didn't, btw. Don't shit on our war dead, asshole.

R17 yes, Genesis was out while on the show. That's why she was popular. Also, she was pretty.

R11 Pam is a doctor at UCSF in San Francisco. She did local commercials for COVID vaccinations during the pandemic.

[quote] Rachel is a cunt.

And apparently a brood mare. Those two need to learn about birth control.

And I still say there was something fishy about that putrid husband resigning from Congress the way he did.

Every time I scrolled past this thread in the thread list I read Pedro Zamora as Pia Zadora. I’ve been on DL too long.

I had forgotten what a beautiful twink Pedro was. He would be a teen heartthrob these days.

Binum-Murray put not a foot wrong with this potentially disastrous casting choice. Casting an HIV+ person, particularly one so young, was a very big risk considering the show was aimed at young MTV viewers.

They could not have picked anyone better than Pedro. His sweet personality, precocious earnestness, and cute, clean-cut, boy-next-door looks worked not only to endear him to those already inclined to support gay and HIV causes but were integral to his effect on the hearts and minds of many of those who were not.

Not only did the show, through Pedro, bring more, younger national attention to HIV, his commitment ceremony with Sean was groundbreaking. It was the first time a real gay couple were shown making a vow to love one another and create a family, all at a time when most Americans hadn’t even heard of such a thing. In the wake of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, many people who liked Pedro saw the ceremony and believed Pedro deserved to be happy and have his relationship respected and accepted like everyone else’s.

If it’s not clear, I have a huge amount of respect and love for Pedro and the outsized impact his example had in securing so many hard won rights we enjoy now, rights which many young gay people take for granted today.

Rest in Peace, sweet boy.

I just remembered something an old friend of mine (long dead) told me many years ago. He met Pedro at some sort of social gathering at someone's home in Atlanta. He said at first Pedro seemed fine, and a lovely boy, but within an hour apparently he had become somewhat delirious and the person who brought him to the gathering had to usher him out. Apparently the host found out the next day that the people Pedro was staying with had to take him to the hospital that night as his mental health had deteriorated really badly and they had no idea what to do for him. The hospital got him stabilized and he was able to check out a few days later and his hosts put him on a plane to Miami.

[quote]And apparently a brood mare. Those two need to learn about birth control.

[quote] And I still say there was something fishy about that putrid husband resigning from Congress the way he did.

Rachel and Sean are hardcore Catholics who hate birth control and probably used Catholic NFP Sean had a history of bitching about his Congressional salary not being enough to support a wife and bunch of kids. I wouldn't be surprised if he was doing shady financial things. The youngest child has Down syndrome and a heart condition related to that and he said that was the reason he resigned. Rachel and Sean will probably make a lot of money on the conservative Catholic anti-choice rally circuit.

I sometimes look at Rachel's instagram for laughs. I was raised Catholic so I'm familiar a lot of the saint feast days, Virgin Mary prayers, and other Catholic things she posts about. But, a lot of it is over the top with the kids being dressed as the Virgin Mary, Popes, Joan of Arc, other Catholic figures and pictures and videos of them in Mass.

I doubt Rachel, Sean, or some of the older teen or college aged ever actually do any of the Catholic Church's teachings about helping the needy. They are "show off " Catholics. Rachel has tons of "pro-life" posts, but you just know she would be the type of Karen bitch to whine about a single mother using EBT or WIC in a grocery store. When I was growing up, my parents were moderates who leaned left on political issues and were pro-choice. My mom had the saying that if a woman chooses to carry a child to term, then the "pro-life" crowd shouldn't complain if the mother needs to access government assistance programs to get on her feet and give food to her child. I hope JD Vance or any other Catholic Republicans never become POTUS because it will piss off people like Rachel and Sean that a Catholic Democrat like Biden was elected POTUS in their lifetime.

Here's to the memory of Pedro and all the brothers and sisters lost.

R26, he developed toxoplasmosis, a brain infection, shortly before dying and even his closest sibling, mother-figure Milly wasn’t sure how much he could understand in the week or so before he died.

The Clinton administration and the Castro regime in order to allow his older siblings, who were not allowed to leave with their parents and the three youngest children in the Mariel Boatlift, agreed to let them immigrate to be reunited in the last few days he was in the hospital in Miami. This started the annual immigration of 20,000 Cubans to America, which ironically might be why Florida is so conservative now.

After that Golden Globe the career just crashed forever.

What?

Oh.

Never mind.

Too soon.

My Nephew texted me today about Pedro. He was a teenager at the time and was in love with him. When he died he was devastated. He was just 16 and it hit him hard. R.I.P Pedro ⚘️🙏❤️

R32- If Pedro had been average looking - dumpy and on the short side I doubt your nephew would have been quite so devastated.

You don't know that.

I was on my way to an Econ. class when I heard the news of his death. It felt like I'd been punched in the gut. Like a friend had died. I know, Mary. I was an emotive fetus at the time.

RIP. Thanks for educating us a little.

Sadly Pedro's parents were POSes at the end. His partner Sean Sasser was down in Miami when Pedro was on his death bed and he was told by Pedro's parents that Pedro had no need for a 'lover' anymore & they refused to include him in any decisions made on Pedro's behalf since Pedro was unable to communicate his wishes by then, even though he and Pedro had had a formal commitment ceremony in San Francisco. How sad.

Sean Sasser died in 2013 of mesothelioma. He was 44 years old and had been HIV + for 25 years.

I hope if there is an afterlife Sean and Pedro are together.