Dwyane Wade Honors His Daughter in NAACP Speech
Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade is a vocal advocate for the LGBTQ community with the transition of his transgender daughter Zaya.
At the NAACP awards recently, Wade and his wife Gabrielle Union dedicated their President’s Award speech to Zaya in their advocacy for equal rights for transgenders. Zaya legally changed her name and gender the past week.
“I want to take this moment to publicly speak to our daughter Zaya,” Wade said. “Zaya, as your father, all I’ve wanted to do was get it right. I’ve sat back and watched how gracefully you’ve taken on the public scrutiny. Even though it’s not easy, I watched you walk out of that house every morning as yourself. I admire how you’ve handled the ignorance in our world. I admire that you face it every day. To say that your village is proud of you is an understatement. Thank you for showing me that there’s more than just one way to communicate effectively. As your father, my job isn’t to create a version of myself or direct your future. My role is to be a facilitator to your hopes, wishes and dreams.”
Union called on the Black community to continue their activism for the rights of the LGBTQ community.
“A new era that demands our collective answer to one simple question: Will we fight for some or will we fight for all of our people?” Union said. “The intersection of Black rights and the rights of the LGBTQIA people continues to be rough. Even as we demand equality at the top of our lungs, we consistently fail to extend our advocacy to protect some of our most vulnerable among us.”
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Jayden Armant is a contributor to Inside the Heat. He is a student at Howard University. He can be reached at jayden.armant@bison.howard.edu or follow him on Twitter @jaydenarmant.
