The Courage Award will be presented October 26 in recognition of the late Sean Sasser at the 27th AIDS Walk Washington, according to a statement by Whitman-Walker Health, which is one of more than a dozen organizations in the nation’s capital that receives proceeds from the event. At the time of his passing, he was the spouse of Michael Kaplan, president and CEO of AIDS United. Sasser first appeared in the celebrity spotlight in 1994 as the partner of the late Pedro Zamora, who starred in the MTV reality show The Real World. As people with HIV, they gave an early face to the epidemic.

To read the statement, click here.