Dwyane Wade Opens Up About How 12-Year-Old Zaya Asked Her Parents To Affirm Her Name

Dwyane Wade is aware he is the father of a "leader." And right now he's inviting the world to accompany him in celebrating 12-year-old Zaya Wade.


In a new interview on The Ellen Degeneres Show promoting his forthcoming ESPN documentary, D Wade: Life Unexpected, the NBA legend remembered what happened the day Zaya came residence from school and asked for her name and pronouns to be affirmed by her parents.


"Zaya came house and mentioned, 'Hey, I want converse with you guys. I think going forward, I'm prepared to live my truth. I'd like to be referenced as she and her. I would love for you guys to call me Zaya,'" he told Degeneres. "So internally it’s our job to one, go out and get statistics, to reach out to every relationship that we have. My spouse [actor Gabrielle Union] reached out to each person on the cast of Pose. We just attempted to identify as much data as we can to help our child be her best self."


This isn't the opening time Wade has openly talked Zaya's gender identity; in December, he appeared on the podcast All The Smoke to talk about his role as a father to a member of the LGBTQ+ community. At the time, he affirmed Zaya's pronouns, however only referred to her as his 12-year-old. He also opened up about how parenting Zaya pushed him to resemble on how to be a higher class of father, a theme that he revisited while in his Ellen appearance.


"We take our roles and responsibilities as parents very seriously," Wade mentioned of his tandem efforts with Union. "So, any time our child comes house with a question, as soon as our child comes house with a provide, as soon as our child comes residence with anything, it’s our job as parents to listen to that to give them the perfect data that we can, the ideal feedback that we can, and that doesn’t change right now that sexuality [and gender] is involved."


The Wade family member has been visibly cooperative of Zaya's coming out for years, attending LGBTQ+ Pride parades with her and defending her from homophobic attempts by strangers on social media to police her clothing choices and self-expression. Yet while Wade is now putting each person else on notice about Zaya's identity, he's making it clear that Zaya's story is hers alone to decide.


"Once Zaya came residence and mentioned, ‘I want you to call me Zaya and I’m prepared to take on this,’ I looked at her and mentioned, ‘You are a leader. And this is our possibility to let you to be a voice,’" Wade mentioned. “Right right now it’s through us, because she’s 12 years old, however eventually it will be through her."


To learn more about issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community, head to lgbt.Mtv.Com.