Retired NBA star Dwyane Wade and his wife, actress Gabrielle Union, were normal, doting parents as they watched 12-year-old Zaya praise the Lord in stirring fashion.
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As Zaya sang with a choir, a kente cloth stole draped around his shirt, Wade, Union and their toddler daughter, Kaavia, were seen in the crowd, clapping and dancing along, wearing broad smiles on their faces.
Wade, 38, posted a portion of Zaya’s choir performance to his Instagram page under the caption: “J.O.Y. ~ A Feeling Of Great Pleasure And Happiness! That’s What Watching Zaya Sing And Dance Last Night Felt Like For Our Family.” Union, 47, also shared a photo of her Instagram Stories, writing simply “The joy!!”
After the gospel performance, Wade posted a second photo of Zaya posing with two bouquets of roses, yellow and red, and captioned it: “Enough Said” with a smiling emoji.
Zaya was assigned male at birth and was formerly named Zion, but now wishes to be referred to as Zaya and to be addressed by the female pronouns she/her. Recently, Wade spoke to Entertainment Tonight about his transgender daughter and why he chose to go public with his family’s story in his new ESPN documentary, D. Wade: Life Unexpected.
“We’re not the only family that deals with all the things we’ve spoken about,” Wade told ET. “We’re not the only family that had to deal with surrogacy, to bring our daughter into the world. We’re not the only family that’s had to deal with gender expression, gender identity, sexuality, with their child.”
“We understand the position we’ve been put in, especially in our community, and even though it’s not always a popular thing to speak out on issues that people are uncomfortable with or not as educated on,” Wade added in the interview. “But this is the platform that God gave me and my family, so we use it.”
Wade told ET that he is learning a lot about himself from Zaya and is proud of his daughter.
“For me, it’s always about being able to adapt and being able to learn, and always being able to grow. I think coming from the inner city of Chicago early on, I was kind of closed-minded on a lot of things,” Wade said. “And I’ve been with my wife, traveling the world, meeting people, going to different places, I’ve learned to keep my mind open, keep my eyes open, keep my heart open, keep my thoughts open. That’s what I’ve been trying to do as I’m growing into the man that I’ve always dreamed of becoming.”