Dwayne Wade Fears For Daughter Zaya's Safety Amid Anti-Trans Laws
Sports

Dwayne Wade Fears For Daughter Zaya's Safety Amid Anti-Trans Laws

Dwayne Wade is opening up about being "afraid" for his daughter.

Amid a new wave of anti-trans legislation, the former NBA star said the bigoted rhetoric behind these bills has caused him intense worry over the wellbeing of his 15-year-old daughter, Zaya Wade.

“As sad as it is, as blessed as my daughter is to have parents who can support her, I’m still afraid every moment she leaves the house," Dwayne said during a conversation at the TIME 100 Summit earlier this week. "And not just because of gun violence but because of the way that people perceive her in this world."

The star — who has been a vocal supporter of Zaya since she came out in 2020 — went on to deride these legislative pushes as a complete "joke," saying that it's "not right" for lawmakers to be "out there making rules and you're not experiencing this."

"If you're not living this and you're just out there signing away and making laws, that's not right," he said before adding, "Come and live a day with my daughter. Come and see how it is to walk through this world as her."

Since the beginning of this year, Arizona, Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma and South Dakota have all passed anti-trans sports laws, with Louisiana also recently passing the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. This all comes on the heels of similar legislation enacted last year by eight other Republican-led states, namely Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Montana, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.

Additionally, Texas politicians have been at the forefront of trying to limit access to gender-affirming care by classifying it as "child abuse." During his conversation at the summit, Dwayne also appeared to take aim at Florida's recent Don't Say Gay bill, which bans all discussion of gender identity or sexual orientation in public schools from kindergarten through 3rd grade.

“Why are we not talking about it? Why are we not educating our kids? Why are we not educating ourselves? Instead of trying to, you know, close the book on it,” Dwayne said, noting that kids are already able to find information on these things by themselves via the internet. “We’re not going to close the book on anyone being gay, bisexual, transgender.”

Watch Dwayne talk about the issue below.

Photo via Getty / Andrew Toth

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