Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider visited the White House on Thursday to mark Transgender Day of Visibility as she spoke out against anti-transgender laws making their way through state legislatures throughout the country.
During her visit, Schneider, who claimed the quiz show’s second-longest win streak at 40 games and became the first woman to win more than $1 million in Jeopardy! history, said that the laws, especially those that deny medical services to transgender youth, are “really scary.”
“Those are lifesaving medical treatments and these bills will cause the deaths of children,” Schneider said. “And that’s really sad to me and is really frightening.”
A state district judge, however, ruled this month that the agency cannot conduct such investigations into parents.
Arizona and Oklahoma also passed laws this week banning transgender athletes.
Schneider on Thursday, delivered a message to transgender youth in states facing these laws to “hang in there.”
“I think that this backlash right now is 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,” she said.
Schneider said she hoped her visit to the White House would accomplish the same result as her time on Jeopardy!.
During her visit, Schneider also met with second gentleman Doug Emhoff and took part in a roundtable.
