Jeopardy’s Amy Schneider Visits White House, Is Living Her Best Life

Amy Schneider—the second-longest winning Jeopardy! contestant in history, highest earning female contestant, first trans contestant to qualify for the Tournament of Champions, and all-around extremely likeable person—is visiting the White House on Thursday to mark Trans Day of Visibility. In a tweet, Schneider updated fans that she’s been busy “traveling all over the country these past few weeks” doing cool shit, and her destination for today happens to be the White House.

Schneider will meet with Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff to “discuss the importance of advancing transgender visibility and equality,” according to the White House. Her visit comes at a time of mounting legislative attacks on trans people, and particularly trans youth—an issue President Biden is set to address today via meetings with trans students in Florida.

It’s been a whirlwind past few months for Schneider, ever since the end of her historic 40-win run on Jeopardy!. Back in February, Schneider announced she had quit her day job (because who needs a 9 to 5 when you’ve won $1,382,800 on a trivia show???) as a software engineering manager. She also recently shared that she has a book in the works, and in some very exciting personal news, became engaged to her fiancee, Genevieve.

Ever since entering the spotlight via her Jeopardy! success, Schneider has been a vocal and joyful advocate for the trans community, calling her renewed pride in her identity one of “the biggest rewards I’ve gotten” from her experience on the show. In an essay reflecting on her experience, she wrote:

“A few months ago, deep down, I simply did not believe that I could ever really be accepted for who I was. That is, I had come to believe (not without some difficulty) that at least some people accepted me: my family, my girlfriend, my inner circle of friends. But I always believed that most people would see me as trans people have so often been seen: a freak, a pervert, a man in a dress, a liar, mentally ill… But the overwhelming reaction has been of support and acceptance. People actually believe me when I say who I am. They don’t think there’s something wrong with me. And because of that, for maybe the first time in my life, I’m starting to think there really isn’t anything wrong with me either.”

In a Good Morning America appearance in January, Schneider also addressed trans people directly, telling them: ”If you’ve got a goal and you’re kind of beating your head against the wall with it trying to achieve it and it doesn’t feel like you’re getting anywhere, I think it’s definitely worth persisting. Specifically to trans people out there, anything you wanted to do before you can still keep chasing those same dreams.”

Love to see Amy thriving.