NBA legend Dwyane Wade posted a tribute to his transgender daughter Zaya Wade on her 17th birthday, embracing her identity publicly in the face of social media trolls and showing off how she owns her unique look.
Dwyane Wade’s birthday post to Zaya
With the support of her father, Zaya has become confident in her image, sparking a modeling career that Dwyane highlighted in the post. The teenager has almost 700,000 Instagram followers and made her runway debut in Paris in 2023.
Nevertheless, Wade’s choice to post his daughter’s image on his own account with more than 20 million followers is one that flies in the face of many NBA fans who do not support his parenting despite loving his basketball career with the Miami Heat and Team USA.
Wade wins award for transgender advocacy
Wade doesn’t care how anybody else feels about the kids he is raising with second wife Gabrielle Union. His “untiring advocacy for the trans community” earned him the 2024 Elevate Prize Catalyst award, which the non-profit organization announced earlier this week.
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The NBA Hall of Famer knows first hand how difficult it can be to raise a transgender child both on and offline. Last year, he told Rachel Nichols that he moved his family out of Florida because of the state’s restrictive laws and attitudes toward transgender people.
Whether it’s through simple acts of love like his birthday post to Zaya or more organized efforts, Wade’s support of the trans community will not stop any time soon. He and Zaya are in the process of launching Translatable, a new project described online as “a safe space for LGBTQIA+ youth to express themselves and a resource hub for their parents, families, and support systems.”