Dwyane Wade recently revealed that his 12-year-old son Zion is now his transgender daughter Zaya. He says the cast of FX’s ‘Pose’ helped him with information to support his ‘young lady’ and her identity.
Retired NBA superstar Dwyane Wade, 38, has been receiving so much love and support ever since he revealed that he’s the proud father of a transgender daughter Zaya, 12, formerly known as his son Zion. D-Wade appeared on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on Feb. 18 and revealed that he and wife Gabrielle Union, 47, turned to the cast of FX’s Pose when Zaya first came to her parents and told them of her gender truth. Pose centers around the NYC ballroom scene in the late 80s and early 90s, and features a cast primarily of African-American and Latino LGBTQ actors.
A caller asked, “What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about what it means to be transgender from the cast of Pose?” Dwyane responded, “The lesson that my wife) and I learned is we got information. We didn’t have a lot of information and we reached out about pronouns. We wanted to make sure we didn’t get it wrong. So we reached out about the pronouns so that we said the right things to our daughter.”
He added that, “She’s identified as a young lady and we wanted to make sure we got all the pronouns right. We wanted to make sure we get all of the language right. So we reached out to make sure that we had all the information that we needed because we are learning in this process as well.” His response got a huge round of applause from the audience for the way he’s been so loving and supportive of Zaya’s decision.
Dwyane first revealed that Zaya is transgender on the Feb. 11 episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “Once Zaya, our 12-year-old, came home…first, Zion. I don’t know if everyone knows, originally named Zion. Zion, born as a boy, came home and said, ‘Hey, so I want to talk to you guys. I think going forward, I’m ready to live my truth. And I want to be referenced as she and her. I’d love for you guys to call me Zaya.’”
The same day Gabrielle tweeted a video of her stepdaughter and D-Wade riding in a golf cart as Zaya spoke of the need to be true to herself. Gab supportively wrote, “Meet Zaya. She’s compassionate, loving, whip smart and we are so proud of her. It’s Ok to listen to, love & respect your children exactly as they are. Love and light good people.” In addition to Zaya, Dwyane also has two sons, Xavier, 6, and Zaire, 18, as well as his one-year-old daughter Kaavia, his first child with Gabrielle.