'Jeopardy's highest trans earner said that gender-affirming care gave her 'peace and quiet for the first time' in Ohio testimony
- "Jeopardy!" winner Amy Schneider offered moving testimony at the Ohio House of Representatives.
- She spoke about the dangers of the SAFE act, which would ban gender-affirming care for minors.
"Jeopardy!" champion Amy Schneider testified about the dangers of legislation aimed at transgender care at an Ohio House of Representatives committee meeting on Wednesday, saying that she owed her life, and "Jeopardy!" earnings, to the gender-affirming care she received.
Schneider testified at a hearing about the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) bill, which would limit medical care for transgender people.
If passed and signed into law, the latest version of HB 454 would limit what doctors could provide to minors, including hormone replacement therapy, puberty blockers, and gender-affirming surgeries. At the hearing, legislators made amendments to the bill, according to NBC.
Schneider said that the legislation would put kids "in grave danger, and a danger that not all of them would survive," per NBC.
Schneider was the first transgender contestant to qualify for "Jeopardy!" and is the show's highest female earner, raking in a whopping $1 million. She testified that her life is now "beyond my wildest dreams," but that had she not had access to that type of care, she didn't know if she would have survived as a minor.
"And yet, if all those things remained just as they are now, and the only thing that was changed was that I was told that I could no longer access hormone therapy, I don't know that I could go on living," Schneider told Ohio legislators. "I've never regretted receiving it, it has improved my life in ways I didn't know it was going to. I have learned who I am, and I wouldn't be here today — in fact, if I hadn't gotten that, I wouldn't have been successful on 'Jeopardy!'"
Schneider opened up more about her own experience transitioning five years ago, saying that before coming out, there was a "quiet alarm" buzzing in her head, and after receiving gender-affirming care, she "knew peace and quiet for the first time."
The "Jeopardy!" winner also tried to build some common ground with the legislature, urging them to think about the government's reach.
"So what I'm asking here today is please don't take that away from them. Please don't force them to go back to that constant feeling of wrongness and danger," Schneider said. "I'm not asking anyone here to change your personal views on trans people. I'm not here to scold anyone about pronouns. I'm not asking you to do anything except to not pass a ban that is expanding the government's reach, to not restrict the freedom of families and doctors and communities to decide for themselves what their children need."