“Jeopardy!” contestant Amy Schneider has been on an impressive winning streak, earning more money than any female competitor in Jeopardy history — but Schneider, a transgender woman, is actually a biological man.
Larissa Kelly, who previously held the distinction as the woman with the highest all-time winnings, congratulated Schneider on taking the top spot.
“Well, it was fun to hold a Jeopardy record for a few years…but it’s been even more fun to watch @Jeopardamy set new standards for excellence, on the show and off. Congratulations to Amy on becoming the woman with the highest overall earnings in the show’s history!” Kelly tweeted.
Schneider apparently had no qualms laying claim to the women’s record, replying, “Thanks so much, I’m honored to be in your company, and I look forward to some day watching the woman who beats us both!”
Kelly replied: “I hope there will be a long line of such women, but you are certainly setting the bar extremely high for them! (And holy hell, that’s *before* any tournaments…can’t wait to see the fireworks to come!)”
So far Schneider, who won the game that aired on Tuesday, has won 20 games and racked up $768,600 in winnings, surpassing Kelly’s $655,930 record.
“I am a trans woman, and I’m proud of that fact, but I’m a lot of other things, too!” Schneider tweeted in November.
“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,” Schneider wrote in the same Twitter thread. “But I also didn’t want it to seem as if it was some kind of shameful secret. While it’s gratifying to know that people didn’t necessarily know I was trans until they read about it, I do want people to know that aspect of me. I think being trans is really cool!”
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