A Role Model!

When I was growing there were no role models for trans people, we had Renee Richards but the press tore her down. If you look in the dictionary at that time you would have found “mental illness, perversion, etc. fast forward 60 years…

Amy Schneider has won 11 in a row on ‘Jeopardy!’ — and she’s already made history
The Charlotte Observer
By Mike Stunson
December 2, 2021


On the heels of this year’s successes by Matt Amodio and Jonathan Fisher, a new “Jeopardy!” champion is quickly moving up the show’s all-time leaderboard.

Amy Schneider, an engineering manager from Oakland, California, has won 11 [As of Dec. 2 it is 12 winds and she is something like the 5^th all time money winner.] straight games on “Jeopardy!” as of Dec. 1 to become the third contestant this year to win as many.

She is in a tie for 10th all-time with 11 straight “Jeopardy!” victories. Her $421,200 in winnings rank seventh in the show’s history of regular season prizes.

Here’s what to know about Schneider, who hopes to close out the week before next week’s Professors Tournament begins.

Not only is she winning she has also taken the high road.

You can even catch Schneider recapping each day’s episode on Twitter. After a Nov. 25 episode, she mentioned “the one thing that sucks” about her winning streak is other contestants having to lose.

She also defended the other contestants.

Amy Schneider Defends Fellow 'Jeopardy!' Contestant From Sexist Criticism
Newsweek
By Ryan Smith
December 2, 2021


Jeopardy! champ Amy Schneider has spoken out in defense of one of her recent challengers, saying she had been the target of sexist attacks on Twitter.

On Tuesday's installment of the show, Schneider was seen facing off against Krys Fischer, a retired substitute teacher from Mendota Heights, Minnesota, and Pam Schoenberg, a dentist and entrepreneur from South Salem, New York.

The day after fans watched Schneider emerge from the episode victorious, the Ohio native took to Twitter to speak out against the misogynistic criticism aimed at Schoenberg, whose competitive streak kept the champ on her toes.
[…]
"But I feel it's important to acknowledge: we all know that some amount of the criticism that Pam received, she received for being a woman. I don't know how much of it wouldn't have been directed at a man acting the same way, but I do know that it's more than 0%.

She has become a role model for the trans community, in The Blast she is reported as saying,

Schneider told local San Francisco station ABC7 that “Seeing trans people anywhere in society that you haven’t seen them before is so valuable for the kids right now that are seeing it.”

She continued, “I’m so grateful that I am giving some nerdy little trans kid somewhere the realization that this is something that they could do too.”

The The Washington Post (via the Seattle Times) writes about her where she wore a transgender flag pin,

“The fact is, I don’t actually think about being trans all that often, and so when appearing on national television, I wanted to represent that part of my identity accurately: as important, but also relatively minor,” she wrote. “But I also didn’t want it to seem as if it was some kind of shameful secret.”

Schneider was initially a bit hesitant to publish the thread. She has seen prominent trans people speak out on Twitter, and the reaction is not always pleasant. But as she realized she was going to be on national television for a decent stretch of time, she started thinking about how she wanted to talk about that part of her identity. As a once-closeted trans person, she knew others in similar situations would be watching her closely.

“I just want them to know that I see them and I support them and they’re great, and they can do great things,” she said, adding that she wanted to show people in the closeted phase that it’s possible to “be living your true self and having success and doing everything you ever wanted to do.” The online reaction from “Jeopardy!” viewers, with a few rare exceptions, has been overwhelmingly positive, she said, and she’s enjoyed chatting with fans on Twitter and sharing behind-the-scenes details.

She takes the high road.