‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Amy Schneider Takes Questions at White House

Out transgender Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider took to the White House’s James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on Thursday, Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV). And she wasn’t just there for a photo opp: The 40-time champ also took some time to answer a few questions.

“It’s International Transgender Day of Visibility, and the White House was good enough to invite me here and be visible, I suppose, and I’m just really honored to be here and that this is being celebrated and that trans people are being celebrated in a place like this,” Schneider says as she stands behind the podium, met with a number of camera clicks.

Someone off-screen then asks, “Do you want to comment on the bills we’ve seen around the nation?”

Schneider replies, “They’re really scary, and some of them in particular that are denying medical services to trans youth, those are life-saving medical treatments, and these bills will cause the deaths of children, and that’s really sad to me and it’s really frightening.”

Another person in the briefing rooms asks Schneider if she sees herself doing any activism or lobbying against any of these efforts at a state level.

“Not at the moment,” Schneider answers. “I am trying to figure out where that sort of advocacy and activism fits into my life. Everything’s changed in the last few months, and I’m still playing it by ear, and I would like to do more of it. But, for right now, I’m just not sure what the right and effective way to do that would be.”

She proceeded to give no comment when another person asked what moves the Biden administration should take in regard to anti-trans bills, but she had a quick reply when another asked what she hoped her visit to the White House would accomplish.

“Just the same thing that I’ve been accomplishing, which is being a trans person out there that isn’t monstrous and isn’t threatening and is just a normal person like we all are,” she says. “So the more people like me can be seen, the harder it is to sustain the myths that are kinda driving a lot of this hate and fear.”

Schneider also delivered a message to trans youth dealing with the slew of anti-trans bills making their way through the country, voicing that she believes it will be temporary.

“I think that the country overall is on our side, and getting more so every day, and I think it’s not going to be too long before these sorts of bills are seen as a thing of the past and no longer what we want to be as a country.”

Schneider’s visit also included a discussion with second gentleman Doug Emhoff about transgender rights.

Amy Schneider (@jeopardamy) visits White House Press Briefing Room. pic.twitter.com/2Rvu2AwvhT

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 31, 2022

Screenshot courtesy of CSPAN on Twitter