Dwyane Wade’s Child Identifies As Female, Changes Her Name To Zaya

Dwyane Wade Says Son Zion Identifies As Female, Changes Name To Zaya

Dwyane Wade has been open about the journey of son Zion, who the retired NBA star revealed identifies as female and goes by Zaya.

Dwyane Wade revealed the change on “Ellen” Monday (Feb. 10).

“Me and my wife, Gabrielle Union, we are proud. When I say proud, we are proud parents of a child in the LGBTQ+ community, and we’re proud allies as well. We take our roles and our responsibilities as parents very seriously. So when our child comes home with a question, when our child comes with an issue, when our child comes with anything, it’s our job as parents to listen to that, to give them the best information that we can, the best feedback that we can. That doesn’t change because sexuality is now involved in it.”

He continued,

“When Zaya, our 12-year-old came home, first Zion, I don’t know if everyone knows, originally named Zion, born as a boy, came home and said ‘Hey, so I wanna talk to you guys. I think going forward I’m ready to live my truth. And I wanna be referenced as ‘she’ and ‘her.’ I would love for you guys to call me Zaya.’ So internally, it’s our job to 1, go out and get information, to reach out to every relationship that we have. My wife reached out to everybody on the cast of ‘POSE’. We’re just trying to figure out as much information we can to make sure that we give our child the best opportunity to be her best self.”

“Once Zion came home and said, ‘Hey call me Zaya, I’m ready to take on this.’ I looked at her and said ‘You are a leader. This is your opportunity to be a voice. Right now it’s through us because she’s 12-years-old, but eventually it will be through her.”

Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union first went public with the 12-year-old’s journey during Pride last April.

Dwyane Wade first referenced the now Zaya as a girl in October.

He publically referred to Zaya as a “she” for the first time while on the “All The Smoke” podcast in December.

And the Wade family has been supportive as well. 

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