At the risk of making a Problematic Overgeneralization, being really into Jeopardy! is one of those personality traits all trans and nonbinary nerds seem to share. Which explains why we’re so obsessed with Amy Schneider, the out trans champion who is currently living out all our trivia-obsessed dreams.
After five consecutive victories, Schneider officially became the first trans contestant in the show’s 57-year history to qualify for the Tournament of Champions — and her winning streak has only continued since then.
“I am so incredibly grateful,” Schneider told Bay Area ABC affiliate KGO. “Hopefully I can send a positive message to the nerdy trans girl who wants to be on the show too.”
Message received! Schneider is not the first trans Jeopardy! contestant, nor the first to win a game — Kate Freeman became the first out trans champion last December — but she has already secured a place of honor in the show’s pantheon.
Her place in the forthcoming Tournament of Champions, which pits the year’s 15 top-performing players against one another, marks a very cool moment for trans folks who pursue the simple pleasures of recalling weird nonsense at a moment’s notice. (It’d be even cooler if she became Grand Champion and took home the $250,000 prize, but hey, it’s an honor just to be invited, right?)
Schneider’s reign behind the podium began on November 17, when she dethroned five-time champ Andrew He with a final tally of $31,600. (Notably, the YouTube comments, normally a wretched hive of scum and villainy, were way angrier that the video title spoiled the outcome than the fact Schneider is trans. Progress!)
As of this writing, Schneider is still the Jeopardy! champion, with a nine-day winning streak marked by some increasingly aggressive play and five-figure wagers during Final Jeopardy, in categories ranging from ancient Roman history to American literature.
“I had done so much to prepare for not winning my fifth game, that when I did win, I didn't really have any feelings ready,” Schneider said in a Newsweek editorial last week about the moment she clinched her tournament seat. “But I quickly realized what I had accomplished. Whatever else happens going forward, there's no way this can't be called a successful run.”
“Successful” is putting it mildly, honey. Thanks in large part to her huge bets on the finals, Schneider’s winnings are approaching $300,000, and she’s not slowing down. “I had some success [in Final Jeopardy], and I was like, ‘yeah, I like money,’” Schneider laughed after Monday night’s episode.
But with great visibility comes great responsibility, obvs, and Schneider knows she’s got a lot of eyes on her. For last week’s Thanksgiving episode, she donned a trans flag pin to send a message of solidarity to trans folks whose biological families aren’t supportive,or who have disowned them entirely.
“Thanksgiving is a holiday that is all about family. And that can be hard for anybody who has been ostracized or otherwise cut off from their family, a group which, sadly, still includes a disproportionately high number of trans people, especially trans youth and trans people of color,” Schneider wrote on Twitter, urging others to support LGBTQ+ people in need during the holidays.
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It’s a heady time to be a trans dorkasaurus, and Schneider is glad to be the avatar through which we vicariously live. “Until very recently, trans people didn’t see themselves doing much out in the world,” she wrote in Newsweek, “so to actually see something like this happen really opens your mind up to possibilities.”
Yes, it’s a very specific version of success, but if you say you don’t want to flaunt your nerdy queer ass on Jeopardy! and win money for knowing some of the least useful information in the world, you’re a liar and I’ll say it to your face (phrased as a question, of course). Keep going, Amy!
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