Dwayne Wade Fears For His Daughter Zaya Wade's Safety

Source: CHRIS DELMAS / Getty

Dwayne Wade is opening up about the fear he has for his transgender daughter, Zaya Wade‘s safety. Zaya, who was born a male, came out as transgender in 2020. Her transition caused a frenzy on social media. Some people were rooting for her confident choice; others claimed that she was too young to make such a major decision regarding her life. Dwayne Wade recently attended the Time 100 Summit in New York City where he spoke on how supportive he and his family are of his daughter, and how he’s also bothered by the fact that he won’t always be by her side to protect her.

“As blessed as it is for my daughter to have parents who can support her, I’m still afraid every moment she leaves the house,” he said. “And not just because of gun violence, but because of the way people perceive her in this world.” Dwayne went on to call those states which are enforcing trans sports bans “a joke.”

Since Zaya’s coming out, the former NBA star has been at the forefront of a few transgender conversations. He hopes to continue the conversation and shift the negative narrative to a positive one. Last year in an appearance on the “I Am Athlete” podcast, he spoke about his concern for people in the transgender community and how acceptance is extremely important. “At the end of the day, what I’m dealing with people, I’m dealing with life and death. It’s people in the transgender community that are getting killed. It’s kids that are murdering theirselves, that are hanging themselves, they’re killing theirselves because something as simple as acceptance,” he stated.

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