'Survivor' Contestant Reveals Trans Bigotry, Apologizes, Is Fired

Employees have been known to be fired in the past for having views that do not align with those of their company. Survivor season 34 contestant Jeff Varner, who was unanimously voted off the island in the April 12 episode of the show, learned that in a very public way this week. Following the April 12 episode of Survivor, in which he outed fellow contestant Zeke Smith as transgender, his employers, Allen Tate Real Estate, fired him.

Varner lamented that he had not been given a chance to express his remorse to his employers, or to right the wrong of outing trans contestant Zeke Smith, with them.

"I wasn't even given the chance to explain or right the wrong," Varner explained. "In the real estate world, buyers and sellers want to know they're signing up with a company that won't dump them or turn their backs on them in time of trial. So I'm talking to several firms now that I know will care about and believe in their employees. I have had several reach out [and] I'm confident I'll find a better home."

While Varner has been open about expressing his remorse in outing Smith in an effort to demonstrate that Smith was in fact "deceitful," the problem lay in the connections that Varner made between trans individuals potentially being somehow sinister. Smith has been clear that he's struggled with forgiving Varner, though Varner has indicated the two have spoken on the phone and every time they've spoken, Smith has been very forgiving.

An understandable firestorm against Varner erupted when the episode aired, an incident that Varner said he hadn't intended on bringing up.

"There is deception here," Varner said during the episode, setting up the statement that launched the anger against him. "Deceptions on levels, Jeff, that these guys don't even understand." Varner turned towards Smith. "Why haven't you told anyone that you're transgender?"

For his part, Survivor host Jeff Probst made it clear that he didn't condone Varner's revelations. He told Katie Couric, Yahoo!News Global Anchor, that he couldn't have predicted Varner's actions, and he's known the openly gay contestant for 17 years.

“There’s absolutely no way to excuse it or justify it, and now he’s trying to make this a moment to do his part to say this is what happens when you make a careless remark that you don’t think much about, the kind of damage it can do,” Probst said. “That is not appropriate. It’s not OK ever for any reason, especially because we’re playing a game for a million dollars.”

There have been efforts on Varner's part to try and atone for the pain he caused Smith in outing him, and he said that Smith has forgiven him every time the two of them have spoken on the phone. That said, Smith has admitted to struggling with the notion of forgiving Varner.

Smith also lauded CBS and Probst for the way in which the company has allowed Smith to reveal his story, which he'd not mentioned during his first season of Survivor since he didn't want to be known as the first transgender Survivor contestant.

"I had a chat with Jeff Probst [the show's host] in which we agreed if, how, and when I'm gonna talk about this part of my life, it's gonna be up to me, as opposed to being outed by a fellow contestant," Smith said.

But in Varner admitting to Probst that there was a deep deceit going on with the current crop of Survivor contestants and then asking Smith why he'd not come out as trans at any point during the game, it's possible that Varner was in fact using language that might have indicated his core beliefs, rather than simply misspeaking. It's apparently been about 10 months since that episode was filmed, and while it's significant that Varner has gone through therapy to discuss what he did, core beliefs are not that easy to discard.

It should also be noted that in wanting an opportunity to "right the wrong" with his now-former employers, Allen Tate Real Estate, Varner appears to be expressing that it's he who is the victim here. The bottom line is, the trauma of being outed without permission can be something that lasts for a lifetime for people who struggle with finding the "right moment" to express their truth.

Varner may have made a mistake, and a big one at that, but it's Smith's strength that is highlighted throughout Varner's blunder and in its aftermath. Nothing could justify Varner's revelation, particularly since it wasn't his to make.