PEOPLE April 24, 2017 69When Zeke Smith was cast onSurvivor in 2016, the
Brooklyn-based asset manager didn’t necessarily
plan on sharing that he was transgender: “I didn’t
want to be the ‘first transgenderSurvivor star,’”
says Smith, 29, who debuted on season 33 of the
CBS show last fall and returned on season 34 in
March. “I’m not ashamed of being trans, but I didn’t
want that to be my story. I just wanted to go out on
an adventure and play a great game.”
Smith, who was raised in Oklahoma and tran-
sitioned while studying religion at Harvard, says
he was open about who he was during hisSur-
vivoraudition—he just didn’t want to discuss
it during filming. “When you tell people you’re
trans, you get two reactions: Either they look at
you funny and pull back, or they go, ‘Aww, that
must be so hard.’ I’m a goofy, fun-loving guy, so
neither of those reactions work well for me,” he
says. So Smith was “shell-shocked” when a com-
petitor outed him on the April 12 episode in an
attempt to paint him as “deceitful.” “I think he
hoped others would believe that trans people
are fraudulent,” Smith says. “What’s great is that
nobody bought it.” Smith praises his castmates
for rebuking the fear tactic and standing by him.
“It’s important people see he lost that fight,” says
Smith. “The message should be clear that hate
will always lose.”•THE REALITY CONTESTANT SAYS HE
HOPES SOMETHING POSITIVE COMES
FROM BEING PUBLICLY OUTED ON TV
ByPATRICK GOMEZSURVIVOR’S
ZEKE
SMITHNo One Knew
That I’m
Tr a n s g e n d e r
‘I got to learn
what I was
made of. I have
nothing to fear’
—ZEKE SMITH“My confidence was
obliterated, and I was
afraid to dream,” Smith
(onSurvivorand, inset,
with former tribemate
Hannah Shapiro) says of
being depressed during
his transition while he
was in college. “I realized
I needed to take on a big
challenge to become
the man I wanted
to be. For some reason,
that wasSurvivor.”
CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT: MONTY BRINTON/CBS/GETTY IMAGES; ROBERT VOETS/CBS/GETTY IMAGES; JEFFREY NEIRA/CBS