Celebrity Parents Who Are So Proud of Their LGBTQ Kids
Dwyane Wade & Gabrielle Union
Dwyane Wade and his wife Gabrielle Union-Wade have been adamant supporters of Wade’s transgender daughter Zaya throughout the years.
On Feb. 25, 2023, Wade and Union accepted the President’s Awards at the NAACP Image Awards. The honor came one day after Zaya’s name change and the changes of sex markers on her legal documents were legally approved.
“I’ve sat back and watched how gracefully you have taken on the public scrutiny,” Wade said in the couple’s powerful acceptance speech. “And even though it’s not easy, I watched you walk out of that house every morning as yourself.”
“You’ve made me a better human just simply by being who you were born to be,” he said. “Our baby girl. Thank you for showing the world what courage looks like.”
Union then urged the NAACP and the Black community to extend advocacy to Black trans people, who she said are “targeted, terrorized and hunted.”
“We are hopeful that we may witness a real shift in the fight for justice,” she said. “The moment the movement makes room for everyone. Everyone.”
In 2020, Wade told Ellen DeGeneres, “We’re just trying to figure out as much information as we can to make sure that we give our child the best opportunity to be her best self.”
In Nov. 2021, when Zaya was 14 years old, the retired NBA player opened up about learning from his kids. “I do the same thing I would do in basketball,” Wade said about raising Zaya in an interview on Instagram Live with Today. “I’m gonna get help, I’m gonna go work on me. So if I don’t know something in this life, especially when it comes from my children, then it’s my job to go and learn these things.”
He continued, “Zaya is so much more than being a part of the trans community. She’s my daughter. She’s beautiful and she has so many other great qualities that she is tapping into that everyone is starting to see.”
The proud dad of four also gave advice to others who might be raising transgender kids. “Make sure that you sit back and see what it is in life that they want to do, and try to go there with them, and try to help them, mold them into what it is they want to be and who they want to be,” he told Variety in May 2022. Union-Wade added, “We believe them when they tell us who they are.”
In Nov. 2022, Wade’s ex-wife Siohvaughn Funches alleged that Wade was trying to “profit” from Zaya’s “name and gender change,” so he addressed the comments on Instagram. He held nothing back, saying in part, “This is a kid who has maintained a 4.0 GPA in honors classes while navigating all this unsolicited and harmful attention and debates about her gender and sexuality from those who are committed to not listening to her, much less even knowing her.”
The protective dad continued, “No one in our house would ever force Zaya or any of our children to do anything against their will, much less force an identity on them. This isn’t a game for my family and definitely not for Zaya. This is her life!”
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