Amy Schneider has returned to Jeopardy! and ready to slay some Daily Doubles and add to her winnings at Tournament of Champions.
Schneider is a GLAAD Media Award honoree as she won forty consecutive games between November 2021 and January 2022. With a knack for Final Jeopardy! and making history as the first openly trans contestant to compete, she has the second longest winning streak in the show’s history right behind Ken Jennings.
With her return to the quiz show, she doesn’t necessarily have a “grand plan”. As she said, if something’s broke, why fix it? However, she still does approach the competition from a different angle.
“There are some slight differences being the Tournament of Champions,” Schneider told GLAAD’s Anthony Allen Ramos. “Previously I was only going up against people who were playing their first game ever and now in the tournament, everybody won a few games. I think the one thing is that I want to be more conscious of looking for the Daily Doubles and remembering where they were and where they might be and when the right time is to really like go for that.”
Blazing the trails as the first openly trans contestant on Tournament, Schneider is one of a growing number of members of the LGBTQ community on the show. She had the opportunity to meet and get to know fellow queer contestant Mattea Roach and as they talked, Schneider was happy to hear that Roach was inspired by her and how their appearances are bolstering queer representation – especially on a mainstream American platform.
“I’m just so glad to see that we’re continuing to clear up the Jeopardy! leaderboards,” Schneider said about queer representation on the show. “Looking around at the field of contestants for the Tournament of Champions – I don’t know, I’m obviously biased, but I just felt like it was just the coolest bunch of people that have ever been together for a tournament. It was diverse and I thought that was really great to see.”
She continued, “I’ve loved Jeopardy my whole [life] and I know that they have tried hard to keep it from being too, ‘cis white dude centric,’ but also that’s the sort of pool of people that are into trivia. I’m glad to see that that’s really starting to change in a more noticeable way.”
In addition to being a Jeopardy! champ, Schneider had another major life benchmark: she became a married woman. They didn’t have a big ceremony besides her now wife, Genevieve Davis, a couple of friends and some dresses from ModCloth. “It was really beautiful… weddings are usually not for the bride. They’re usually for the family and the guests and everything like that. So having one that was just about us was really kind of nice and an unexpected win.”
Since they haven’t had a big wedding yet, Schneider is hoping that she can use some of her Jeopardy! winnings to throw a huge celebration in wine country. In addition, she wants to use that dough to buy a home and travel the world.
Scheider has in turn become an outspoken advocate for the trans community. Following Tuesday night’s episode, Schneider tweeted the following:
Hi! So, I’ll have lots to say about tonight’s game, but unfortunately a bigger priority has intervened. A childhood friend told me about Ohio SB 454, which would have devastating consequences for trans kids, and I’m flying to Columbus in the morning to do what I can to fight it
— Amy Schneider (@Jeopardamy) November 15, 2022
Ohio’s HB454 is a bill that would ban gender affirming care for minors in the state, despite every medical major association agreeing that trans healthcare is lifesaving and neccesary. Read Schneider’s full testimony below.
On top of all of this, Schneider is working on a book which she says has been a “very rewarding” experience. “I’m very excited for people to see it once I actually do finish the darn thing,” quipped Schneider.
“Jeopardy” airs weekdays, check your local listings.
Amy Schneider’s Testimony at the Ohio House Families, Aging and Human Services Committee:
November 16th, 2022
Columbus, OH
My name is Amy Schneider, my pronouns are she/her, and I am proud to be a native of Ohio, born and raised in the Five Oaks neighborhood of Dayton, and a graduate of Corpus Christi Elementary, Chaminade-Juliet High School, and the University of Dayton. Go Flyers. This year I also became a Jeopardy champion. But most importantly for this hearing I am a trans woman. I am here today because I’m strongly opposed to House Bill 454 banning gender affirming healthcare for minors. I believe that this bill will have devastating consequences for Ohio’s children but let me be clear, I am not here to demonize supporters of this bill or to claim that they want children to be harmed.
I truly believe that all of us here have the same goal: to keep Ohio’s children safe, and healthy. But if you do share that goal, then passing this bill would be a tragic mistake. Because far from protecting children, this bill would put some of them in grave danger and a danger that not all of them would survive. And I know that that sounds extreme, that I must be exaggerating about that. I get that reaction, but I really believe that I am telling you the simple truth. There are statistics and studies that I could point to to support that, but I’m not a statistician, I’m not a doctor. I’m here to tell you why that even if I didn’t know about any of those studies that I would still believe that the lives of children are on the line with the fate of this bill. See, my life is going great right now, beyond my wildest dreams. I won a million dollars on Jeopardy. I’ve become like a minor celebrity. Flown all over the country, visited the White House. And most of all I married the love of my life, Genevieve. And yet if all those things remain just as they are now, and the only thing that would change is if I was told I could no longer access hormone therapy. I don’t know that I could go on living. And I hope that I would and I’d hope I would find a way to do it, but I really believe that I might not survive.
The best metaphor that I’ve come up with is that it’s as if from the moment I was born, there was this quiet alarm going off in the back of my head, danger danger clang clang all the time. And after decades of living with that agony, I came out as trans. And I began receiving gender affirming care and for the first time in my life, that alarm went silent, and I knew peace and quiet for the first time. The only way I was able to live with it before was because I thought there was no other way to live. But to have gotten this piece and to have that alarm turned back on now would be so devastating. And that’s for me, a grown woman, who has so much going for her. There are kids in this state who don’t have so much going for them. If nothing else they are dealing with the normal problems and anxieties of just growing up. They have achieved that same peace. They have had that alarm bell silenced for them because of the health care they have been able to receive.
What I’m asking for here today is, please. Don’t take that away from them. Please don’t force them to go back to that constant feeling of wrongness and danger. I’m not asking anyone here to change your personal views on trans people. I’m not here to scold anyone about pronouns. I’m not asking you to do anything except to not pass a ban that is expanding the government’s reach, to not restrict the freedom of families and doctors and communities to decide for themselves what their children need without a bunch of politicians in Columbus sticking their noses into everyone’s private business. I hope you will consider my testimony and vote no on this dangerous bill.
I thank you again for the opportunity to testify. And I’ll take any questions you have.
Any feelings of regret? No, I have never regretted receiving it, it’s been honestly the best thing that’s happened in my life. It has improved my life in ways I didn’t realize. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t get that. I wouldn’t be successful on Jeopardy.
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