Dwyane Wade says he fears for trans daughter Zaya’s safety “every moment she leaves the house”
Basketball star Dwyane Wade discussed the fears he experiences when his trans daughter Zaya Wade leaves the house. During the Time100 Summit event on 7 June, the NBA legend sat down with CNN and praised Zaya for her confidence during her coming out journey. “I mean, I went years without telling my chef that I didn’t like cilantro in my burger – and that was hard as an adult,” he explained. “It took me years to have the confidence to say that.
My daughter, eight years old, came home and had the confidence to say: ‘This is who I am. This is who I’m going to be.'” Wade first opened up to the world about Zaya’s gender identity in 2020 on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
During his appearance, the philanthropist said he and his wife Gabrielle Union are “proud parents of a child in the LGBT+ community” and “proud allies”.
Elsewhere in his interview, Wade revealed that after she came out he began to have conversations with Zaya to get a better grasp on her life and gender identity. “I started having to have a little bit older conversations with her about life and really get a chance to understand because she knows things and herself and I don’t… And I’m still learning, and there’s still information out here, but just to sit down with her and show her that I’m concerned and I care, that I want to know more, that I want to learn,” he told Poppy Harlow of CNN. “I think that was the thing that kind of made her relax, a little calm, a little bit more comfortable coming to me.
