It’s a pretty widely held belief that desperate times call for desperate measures, but in Survivor contestant Jeff Varner’s case, this cliché is completely irrelevant. On Wednesday’s dramatic episode, Varner was on the chopping block for elimination and in a last-ditch attempt to save his reality show career, made an egregious error: outing fellow castaway Zeke Smith as transgender.

Refinery29 reports that Varner questioned Smith in front of the Tribal Council, asking why he hadn’t revealed his trans identity to anyone on the show. Deeming the highly personal detail something that wouldn’t affect elimination choice, the Council booted Varner off the show to the joy of Smith’s fans.

In a frenzy of tweets, supporters praised Smith as everything from a “shining star of a human being” to the “strongest Survivor.” Many also condemned the situation as “the ugliest part of humanity followed by the most beautiful part,” and “horrifying and moving and beautiful all in one.”

While fans were scrambling to express their opinions on social media, Smith crafted a gorgeous response in The Hollywood Reporter describing the minutes that followed the incident between him and Varner. “The lights magnified in brightness. The cameras, though 30 feet away, suddenly felt inches from my face. All sound faded. Something primal deep inside me screamed: run. I lost control of my body, my legs bounced up and down uncontrollably, willing me to flee, but the rest of me sat dead as stone,” he wrote.

The most surprising tidbit of the entire night? Jeff Varner is openly gay. While defending his actions to the other Survivor contestants, he said, “I argue for the rights of transgender people every day in the state of North Carolina. I would never say or do anything to hurt anyone here.”

On his Twitter profile, Varner describes himself as, “Accepting of all. Tolerant of most.” From his actions last night, most people would probably agree that he should change the blurb to, “Accepting of most. Tolerant of most.” It’s sadly more fitting, don’t you think?

This ‘Survivor’ Contestant Is Being Applauded After a Fellow Competitor Outed Him as Transgender

We wanna slide into your DMs