On Tuesday (Feburary 11), Dwayne Wade was a guest on the Ellen DeGeneres Show where he opened up about supporting his 12-year-old child in living her truth.
Dwayne is dad to four children – 18-year-old Zaire, 12-year-old Zion, six-year-old Xavier, and one-year-old Kaavia – as well as guardion of his 18-year-old nephew Dehvon. And Dwayne told the story about how Zion shared that she wanted to be referred to with female pronouns.
“First of all, me and my wife, my wife Gabrielle Union, we are proud… parents of a child in the LGBTQ+ community. And we’re proud allies as well,” he began. “And we take our roles and our responsibility as parents very seriously.”
“So when a child comes home with a question, when a child comes home with an issue, when a child comes home with anything, it’s our job as parents to listen to that, to give them the best information that we can, the best feedback that we can,” he continues. “And that doesn’t change because sexuality’s now involved in it.”
“Zaya, our 12-year-old, came home… and said, ‘Hey, so I want to talk to you guys. I think going forward I’m ready to live my truth. And I want to be referenced as ‘she’ and ‘her.’ I would love for you guys to call me Zaya,'” he recalls. “And so internally, now it’s our job to one, go out and get information, to reach out to every relationship that we have.”
Dwayne shared that Gabrielle actually reached out to the cast of the FX series Pose, which features many LGBTQ+ actors and characters. “We’re just trying to figure out as much information as we can to make sure that we give our child the best opportunities to be her best self,” he says.
And he’s all for supporting his child in living her truth – being a voice for her until she can be a voice for herself.
“Once Zion came home and said, ‘Hey, you call me Zaya. I’m ready to take on this.’ I looked at her and said, ‘You are a leader. You are a leader. And this is our opportunity to allow you to be a voice,'” he says. “Right now it’s through us because she’s 12 years old. But eventually it’ll be through her.”
Gabrielle later shared a sweet video of Zaya in a golf cart with her dad, where she shares her thoughts about being true to oneself.
“Meet Zaya. She’s compassionate, loving, whip smart and we are so proud of her. It’s Ok to listen to, love & respect your children exactly as they are. Love and light good people,” she captioned the clip.
“Don’t even worry about that, just be true to yourself,” Zaya says in the video. “What’s the point of being on this earth if you’re just going to try to be someone you’re not? It’s like, you’re not even living your true self, which is like, the dumbest concept to me. Be true and don’t really care what the stereotypical way of being you is.”
Her dad began to ask what she thinks about trying to be true to oneself even when “people are being mean” or “people are being hurt because they want to be true to themselves.”
“I know it can get tough, definitely,” Zaya responded. “But I think you can push through, and you be the best you and especially more recently, it’s become more accepting. … But I think even through bad times, you just gotta push through. It’s worth it. I feel like it’s very worth it when you reach that point of like, yourself.”
“You can look in the mirror and say hi to yourself, ‘nice to meet you,’ instead of, like, I don’t even know who I am,” she continues. “It’s like, full identity crisis.”
Celebs like Reese Witherspoon, Ellen Pompeo, Natalie Portman, Katie Couric and more, as well as many fans tweeted their support of Gabrielle’s touching video.
The Bring It On actress later responded, thanking everyone for the love and support they’ve shown.
Union took to Twitter once again to thank fans for their outpouring of love and support.
“Huge huge huge THANK YOU to everyone whose dms I slid into, friends, & family who provided information, resources, love & encouragement,” she wrote. “We are humble LGBTQ+ allies with ALOT to learn & grateful for all the support.”
