The reality television show Survivor has been on CBS since May 31, 2000. There have been thirty-four seasons, the last of which being Survivor: Game Changers which premiered on March 8, 2017. Survivor: Game Changers featured twenty returning players and took place on the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji.

Aside from small changes made in the voting at tribal council, the season was the same as every other season: the contestants are marooned on an island, they have to provide their own food and shelter, and they are slowly voted off until the “Sole Survivor” is left. However, that all changed when contestant Jeff Varner outed fellow contestant Zeke Smith as transgender during tribal council.

The heartwarming aspect of an otherwise cruel and hateful moment was the fact that the rest of the cast members and host Jeff Probst immediately jumped to Smith’s defense and called out Varner on his callousness. “That’s personal,” said Debbie Wanner, who was on the same team as Zeke earlier in the game. Tai Trangy, also formerly on Smith’s team, said, “Nobody has the right to out anybody.” (Truth.)

But perhaps the most touching defense came from Sarah Lacina: “I come from a very conservative background. It’s not very diverse when it comes to a lot of gay and lesbian and transgender and things. So I’m not exposed to it as much as most of these people are. The fact that I can love this guy so much, and it doesn’t change anything for me, makes me realize that I’ve grown huge as a person.”

There are a couple of powerful things we can take from Sarah’s statement. The first is that she stands up for someone who represents something that she most likely does not believe in. The second is that she recognizes the fact that, even though Zeke is transgender, he’s still a person that she’s grown to care about and his being born a different gender doesn’t change the person that he is. The third is that she refers to Zeke as “this guy.” It may be a small thing, but Sarah referred to Zeke as a man, even after finding out that he was born a girl.

This, to me, is one of the most important moments on reality television. The way that the contestants protect Zeke rather than persecute him for being different is admirable and establishes a view that I think we all need to possess: kindness. I don’t care if you think that being transgender is wrong; I don’t care if you think that being gay is wrong; I don’t care if you think that being different from what society considers normal is wrong. The fact of the matter is that everyone on this earth is human and deserves to be treated as such.

“Be kind to one another.” Ellen Degeneres’s infamous phrase is a motto that we all need to adopt. Kindness is not a privilege or a gift to bestow on someone; it is a right. We are all living on the same earth. We are all made up of the same stuff. No one person is better than another, so let’s be kind to each other.