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(Warning: This article might contain spoilers relating to upcoming episodes of Survivor)
Cape Town – The most intense part of the Survivor reality show is Tribal Council and elimination.
On Wednesday things took an ugly turn on the current season of the show airing in the US.
During the elimination ceremony on Survivor: Game Changers Jeff Varner outed another player, Zeke Smith as transgender.
According to reports Jeff was to be eliminated from the competition that night and in an attempt to save himself he wanted to brand Zeke as deceptive.
Other cast mates instantly leapt to Zeke's defence.
Watch it here:
In an exclusive column for The Hollywood Reporter Zeke shared his journey and what it was like to be outed on national television.
This is Zeke's second appearance on the reality show. After being eliminated on Millennials vs. Gen-X he was immediately invited back for the all-star series.
When he applied to be on the show he didn’t reveal in his initial video that he was trans.
"I wanted the show to desire me as a game player and an eccentric storyteller, not as 'The First Trans Survivor Player,'" writes Zeke.
For Zeke Survivor was the outlet to change his life, "When seeking to radically change my life and test the depths of my manhood, I picked a reality show instead of something actually noble."
Since Jeff outed him on the show Zeke has been struggling with forgiveness.
"While I can reconcile the personal slight of him outing me, I continue to be troubled by his willingness to deploy such a dangerous stereotype on a global platform."
Jeff has since apologised to Zeke in a lengthy post on Twitter in which he said it was the worst decision of his life.
— Jeff Varner (@JEFFVARNER) April 13, 2017
