Danny Roberts Shames Real World Homecoming For Cutting HIV Talk

While Danny said he appreciated that Homecoming “genuinely focused on my mental health journey,” he argued it not only did a disservice to his own story, but also those that came before him.

“What I want heard more than anything is that this was a failure to honor their own previous work and Pedro Zamora,” Danny said, “which was so important and forgotten.”

Pedro appeared on The Real World: San Francisco in 1994 and became one of the first openly gay men living with HIV to be seen on television. Zamora died of an AIDS-related illness on November 11, 1994 at the age of 22, just hours after the Real World: San Francisco finale aired.

In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, Bunim/Murray Productions—the production company responsible for The Real World—responded to Danny’s allegations that the HIV storyline was cut, saying it “has never shied away from sharing stories around HIV and AIDS” since the franchise premiered in 1992.

“The Homecoming series ultimately focused on Danny’s mental health journey,” a Bunim/Murray statement said, “which he shared publicly with all his former roommates for the first time.”