AUSTIN, Texas — Senate Bill 2, a bill that would prohibit students from playing on sports teams that don't align with the sex assigned to them at birth, had its first hearing during special session on Tuesday. 

What You Need To Know

  • Senate Bill 2 was taken up again this week during the special session but remains pending in committee

  • The bill would prohibit student-athletes from participating with teams that don't align with the gender assigned to them at birth 

  • Jordyn Pollack, a transgender man who played numerous sports in high school, says he was molded by athletics 

  • Pollack believes that if the bill passes transgender athletes will be further isolated 

An Austin transgender man says sports helped shape who he is today.

He played lacrosse, basketball, softball and other sports growing up and in high school.

“Those sports and being on those teams really helped mold me and gave me that dedication and drive and showed me character and teamwork which has made me the person I am today,” Jordyn Pollack, an Austin transgender man, said. 

Pollack played on the girl’s team when he was in high school. He didn’t transition to a male until years later. 

That’s why he’s now speaking out against Senate Bill 2, a bill that would require public school students to compete in interscholastic athletic competitions based on biological sex. 

“It would’ve affected me in high school,” Pollack said. 

He thinks if passed, the law would have major impacts on transgender students that he says could feel excluded from sports. Pollack has made multiple trips to the State Capitol, supporting families of transgender kids. 

“She says she’s ready to leave Texas if this bill gets passed,” Pollack said, referring to the mother of a transgender girl he met at the State Capitol. 

The multiple families he’s spoken to are worried about their kids' mental health. When he was that age, he was suicidal. 

“As a kid, I would lay in bed some nights and wish I would wake up a boy for the day,” Pollack said.  

It wasn’t until looking at Instagram as an adult he realized he could.  

He says he couldn’t imagine transitioning as a kid, being told he couldn’t play on the boy’s team or being outcast for looking different than the rest of his team. 

“I definitely think that if I looked like a man in high school and had to play on the girl's team I may not have played sports,” Pollack said. 

Now he’s encouraging today’s transgender youth, regardless of what decisions are made at the State Capitol. 

“I would tell them to not give up on themselves and they're still valid in who they are,” Pollack said.

The bill was left pending in the House Public Education Committee after a hours-long public hearing.