Survivor Contestant Who Outed Transgender Man Loses His Job

Well things are getting worse for the Survivor contestant who outed a Transgender man on the show. Jeff Varner has lost his job as a North Carolina real estate agent after he received massive backlash for revealing another contestant on the show was transgender.

Varner, who is openly gay, outed fellow tribe mate Zeke Smith as transgender on the CBS reality competition last week and according to News & Record Greensboro, he was fired from his job at Allen Tate Realtors the day after the episode aired.
The company said that Varner is “in the middle of a news story that we don’t want anything to do with.”

Varner has been on the show three-times, his first appearance was in season two back in 2001.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Varner said, “As I’m spending hours doing press [on Thursday], I discover I can’t access my email. Then the MLS association emails to say, You’ve been terminated.’ I didn’t even find out from my company,” he said.

“Suddenly my real estate license was inactive and my current clients [were] left in the dark. It took hours after my press junket to get anyone with the company on the phone to tell me personally, and even longer to calm my clients, all of whom, by the way, are coming with me to my new firm. It was an ugly day.”

“I was devastated,” he added. “[I warned the company that headlines might be coming], but apparently not the people who needed to hear it.”

“I wasn’t even given the chance to explain or right the wrong,” Varner said. “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.”

Varner has apologized to Zeke Smith for outing him. He said, “This is about Zeke. “I can only profusely apologize. I have apologized to him – we’ve spoken several times on the phone. He continually forgives me. I am amazed and moved at his ability to do that. I know that forgiveness is difficult. I know that he has a lot of people in his ear. I know that watching this last night was traumatic not only for me and my family – I can only imagine what this was like for him and his friends and everybody who loves him.”

“I hurt him,” Varner continued. “When we were in pain and we are in fair, we are dangerous people. We say things we don’t mean. And he’s calling me a bigot and full of hate and all kinds of stuff. I forgive him for that. I give him every inch of every room to feel and experience what he’s feeling. If he wants to take swings at me, I’m the one to hand him the bat.

I deserve it. I deserve every bit of it. No one is going to beat me up worse than I have myself.”