1. Sean Franklin Sasser was an American educator, activist, pastry chef, and reality television personality best known for his appearances on MTV's The Real World: San Francisco, which depicted his relationship with fellow AIDS activist Pedro Zamora.
Sean Franklin Sasser was born on October 25,1968, in Detroit, where he grew up.
Sean Sasser attended a private school, which he said was probably not typical of most African-American young people in urban Detroit.
Sean Sasser later attended Cass Technical High School, a select college-preparatory magnet school.
Sean Sasser dropped out of college, intending initially to take a year off.
Sean Sasser decided to enroll in culinary school, as he had always been fond of cooking, and wanted to open his own restaurant.
Sean Sasser joined a youth HIV-positive movement that advocated attention for adolescents with the disease, and began speaking to groups about his own experience with HIV.
Sean Sasser subsequently assisted a support group called Bay Area Positives, for young people of color.
Sean Sasser appeared in a number of videos on behalf of the group, including "Not Me", which aired on PBS.
Sean Sasser was photographed by Annie Leibovitz for a national AIDS awareness campaign.
Sean Sasser attended the 1993 Lesbian and Gay March on Washington, where he introduced himself to a fellow AIDS educator named Pedro Zamora.
Sean Sasser had been living in San Francisco for a couple of years in the 1990s.
Zamora asked the show's producers for permission to go out on the second date without cameras, so that he and Sean Sasser could get to know one another in a more natural setting.
Winick adds that whereas Sean Sasser was a private person who harbored the ability to pack up and leave town on short notice, Zamora's openness led them to discuss more permanent living arrangements as a couple.
Sean Sasser proposed to Zamora, and the two exchanged vows in a commitment ceremony in the loft, the first such ceremony for a same-sex couple in television history.
Sean Sasser's family was not accepting of Sasser and because the PML gradually took away Zamora's ability to speak, Zamora was unable to explicitly communicate to them the importance of Sasser in his life.
Sean Sasser moved to Atlanta in late 1995, in order to be with his boyfriend, and hoped to open a cafe.
Sean Sasser took issue with the film's portrayal of his relationship with Zamora's family.
Sean Sasser was a pastry chef at Ritz-Carlton hotel properties and head pastry chef at The Nines, a luxury hotel in Portland, Oregon.
Sean Sasser moved to Washington, DC in 2012, where, as a pastry chef at a restaurant called RIS, he was praised by the Washington Blade for his homemade ice cream and sorbets.
In June 2013, Sean Sasser married Michael Kaplan, whom he had dated off and on since the 1990s, and with whom he had moved in six years prior.
Sean Sasser was active in youth and mentoring organizations, and he and Kaplan served as foster parents to a 4-year-old girl.
In July 2013, Sean Sasser, who had been HIV-positive for 25 years, was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lungs.
Sean Sasser is survived by his husband, Michael, mother, Patricia, and his sister, a dancer who lives in Detroit with her husband and daughter.
In June 2020, Sean Sasser's name was added to the names of American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument in New York City's Stonewall Inn, the first US national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history.