Miami Heat great Dwyane Wade’s daughter Zaya recently came out as transgender, and it has elicited all types of responses, both good and bad.
Boosie Badazz made some comments about the younger Wade that angered the elder Wade after the former did an interview with former first lady Michelle Obama.
“At the end of the day, when I’m dealing with people, I’m dealing with life and death,” said the basketball legend on a recent episode of “I Am Athlete,” setting up his response to Boosie. “It’s people in the transgender community that are getting killed. It’s kids that are murdering themselves, that are hanging themselves, they’re killing themselves because of something as simple as acceptance. Something as simple as unconditional love is not being given to these kids, and I’ll be damned if my child gon’ be that person because of something as simple as me supporting who you are.”
The elder Wade, however, is choosing to view this hate as a positive and as an opportunity to improve.
“So, Boosie, all the people who got something to say, J-Boog, who just came out recently…all the people who got something to say about my kids, I thank you because you’re allowing the conversation to keep going forward because you know what?” added Wade. “You might not have the answer today, I don’t have all the answers, but we’re growing from all these conversations. So I thank everybody for even hating and starting those conversations because those conversations are starting other conversations that we need to have. And that’s happening out there.”
The issue of people coming out as transgender and changing the gender they were assigned at birth has become a hot-button topic across the nation.
A growing number of lawmakers are looking to ban such individuals from participating in sports as members of their new gender because they feel such people are trying to gain an artificial advantage.
The elder Wade made it be known that he is against such legislation, as he made a powerful statement on social media after Brandon Boulware told a moving story.
By and large, the South Florida community has been supportive of the younger Wade’s decision to identify as female, and the elder Wade, in turn, has been supportive of other LGBTQ individuals.