Zaya Wade has been incredibly brave. At 13 years old, she's living in her truth. Zaya publicly came out as transgender in February 2020. She did so with the overwhelming love and support of dad Dwyane Wade and stepmom Gabrielle Union.
Gabrielle has been a vocal advocate for Zaya. In a recent appearance on Facebook Watch's Peace of Mind With Taraji, Gabrielle spoke with cohosts Taraji P. Henson and Tracie Jade Jenkins about Zaya's coming-out experience.
During the conversation, Gabrielle got candid about some of the struggles Zaya faced. She noted that online conversation around and speculation about the teen's identity made her feel outed. As a young person, she struggled to find the words to describe herself, and it made it more difficult when others were making assumptions on her behalf.
Zaya Wade has had a bold 2020. The 13-year-old chose to publicly come out as transgender in February. Zaya's stepmother, Gabrielle Union, introduced her to the world in a tweet.
"Meet Zaya. She's compassionate, loving, whip smart and we are so proud of her. It’s Ok to listen to, love & respect your children exactly as they are. Love and light good people," Gabrielle wrote.
Gabrielle recently appeared on Facebook Watch's Peace of Mind With Taraji, where she talked about how Zaya's journey has gone this year. Gabrielle was candid with cohosts Taraji P. Henson and Tracie Jade Jenkins about some of the struggles that Zaya faced both before and after coming out.
"Zaya's peace is nonnegotiable," Gabrielle told the ladies.
"As Zaya gathered more language, she was able to tell us about her identity. She was able to tell us about her sexuality. She was able to tell us 'I'm trans.' And she says, 'I've come out a few times. I came out to my teacher in third grade, and then when you guys posted that picture of me in Chicago at my birthday party.'"
"And it's just Zaya standing next to her cake," Gabrielle said of the social media snapshot. "And that picture was dissected on certain Black blogs, and the comments were the guessing as to who Zaya was and why. … She said, 'It felt like I was outed, and I was just standing next to my cake.'"
As Zaya has been navigating this space, Gabrielle and Dwyane have been learning a lot. She discussed them learning about demisexuality after Zaya declared herself a demisexual. It hasn't always been easy, but they're doing the work to understand and support.
"We only know what we know," she acknowledged.
"And we have to be open to embrace that we don't know [expletive]."
Taraji shared her own experience after her younger brother came out to her. She recognized there were a lot of traumas within that journey.
"In our community, it is very difficult because on top of the stigmas around mental health, then you have the stigmas around sexuality," Taraji said.
"Now we're dealing with social media. We have people who are very much in the spotlight. And now this baby who is charged with all this negativity. I just want to commend you on how you guys handled it."
Taraji noted how important it was that Dwyane was so publicly accepting and supportive.
"Dwyane Wade, brother, I love you," Taraji said.
"What you did, we need that. Our children are dying from suicide and these are things they are dealing with."
Dwyane has also been open about what he wants for Zaya as she continues along her journey, "for them to see their full potential."
"As I'm raising [Zaya], as I'm raising my kids, you just try to put them in the best situations to be able to succeed in life," he told People magazine.
"How I do that, and how me and my wife decide to do that, may be different than another family, but we want them to know there's always unconditional love, that it will always be support. We've got you, no matter what. And we see you. … I see you how you see you."
