Dwyane Wade has been very open about his child, Zaya, who was born a boy named Zion. The former basketball star recently had a sit-down with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America, where he revealed that his entire family has embraced Zaya’s decision to now be addressed as a girl.
Wade also explained why he decided to have an honest conversation about the matter in his documentary about his life.
FULL INTERVIEW: NBA superstar @DwyaneWade opens up to @robinroberts about daughter Zaya’s gender identity and why it was important to feature this journey his new @ESPN documentary. https://t.co/ZdCAUU3gAQ pic.twitter.com/Bf6xUJQvcx
— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 18, 2020
Gabrielle Union’s husband revealed: “We struggled with what people would say about a 12-year-old making a decision about her life. But we also know our child, right?… One thing we do know as a family, we’ve been through so many different things that other people and other families go through, and they say, ‘Thank you guys for speaking out on it. Thank you guys for being the face and the voice of it because we can’t. And that’s what we’re trying to do. We know there’s other families out there that are dealing with their kid, finding themselves, and learning who they are.”
Wade dropped a huge family secret by saying that this is a conversation they have been having since Zion was only three years old.
He claimed: “She’s known it for nine years. She’s known since she was three years old. Along this way, we’ve asked questions, and we’ve learned. But she’s known.”
Wade also took on the critics and called his daughter a leader and added: “Hopefully, I’m dealing with it the right way. Some people feel that I’m not. But inside our home, we see the smile on her face. We see the confidence that she’s able to walk around and be herself. And that’s when you know you’re doing right. She is our leader. I think when the conversation we had — the one thing about it, for parents, is have conversations with your kids. Zaya, early on, knew two things. She knew straight, and she knew gay. But Zaya started doing more research.”
He concluded by: “She is the one who sat down with us as a family and said, ‘Hey, I don’t think I’m gay.’ And she went down the list. ‘This is how I identify myself, and this is my gender identity, I identify myself as a young lady. I think I’m a straight trans because I like boys.’ So it was a process for us to sit down with our daughter and find out who she is and what she likes, and not put something on her. As parents, we put our hopes, and we put our fears on our kids. With Zaya, we decided to listen to her. And she’s walking us on the journey. I’m not going to sit here and act like we have all the answers. “I’m not going to sit here and act like before our child sat us down that we weren’t ignorant parents. When I say we’re learning from our 12-year-old, we’re literally learning from our child.”
Advertisement
The family has been front and center lately.
Post Views:
5
