Dwyane Wade has a transgender daughter named Zaya, and the former recently announced that he has launched an online community called Translatable, which is dedicated to supporting young transgender people.
On top of Translatable’s website, the community also has an Instagram page that has racked up nearly 5,000 followers despite the fact that only three posts have been uploaded to the account at this point.
The younger Wade — who is 16 years old and nearing her 17th birthday — came out as trans back in the year 2020.
But the Wade family no longer lives in the state where the elder Wade saw so much collective and individual success during his NBA career. Legislation passed in the state of Florida and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that targeted transgender kids convinced the family to move to California not too long ago.
“We’ve done so many great things here so it wasn’t easy to leave,” the elder Wade told the Associated Press. “But the community wasn’t here for Zaya, so the community wasn’t here for us.”
The elder Wade spent 15 seasons of his NBA career with the Heat organization and averaged 22.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.9 blocks per game on 48.3 percent shooting from the field across 948 total regular-season games in Miami.
The 42-year-old also won three titles during his playing days with the Heat, with those titles coming in the years 2006, 2012 and 2013. The elder Wade and the Heat eliminated the Dallas Mavericks in the 2006 NBA Finals, Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2012 NBA Finals and San Antonio Spurs in the 2013 championship series.
Despite winning three titles, the elder Wade won just one Finals MVP award in 2006. Against Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks, he averaged 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.7 steals per contest in a series the Heat went on to win in six games after losing Games 1 and 2 of the series.
Fittingly, the elder Wade spent the final season of his NBA career with the Heat, considering he retired after appearing in 72 games during the 2018-19 regular season.
Hopefully the establishment of the Translatable online community will give trans children — including the younger Wade — and their families a space where they can feel supported.
