Basketball star Dwyane Wade and his wife Gabrielle Union are raising their children to be exactly who they are, and it’s so heartwarming to see. More parents should be like the Wades!
A photo of their child, Zion, caused a stir when Dwyane uploaded it with the caption, “My girls.”
This raised a few eyebrows as Zion was assigned male at birth, but both Dwyane and Gabrielle defended their child’s right to express themselves and be referred to however they’re most comfortable with.
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Dwyane has opened up about the experience of learning he was raising a gender non-conforming child.
“I watched my son, from day one, become into who she now eventually come into,” Dwyane said on an episode of the All The Smoke podcast.
“And for me… nothing changes in my love. Nothing changes in my responsibilities.”
“So, all I had to do now is get smarter educate myself more. And that’s my job,” Dwyane said. Speaking of how he and Gabrielle are raising their children, he said, “We want them to be whoever they feel that they can be in this world. That’s our goal.”
“Me and my wife are having conversations about, you know, us noticing that, you know, [Zion] wasn’t on the boy vibe.”
“And I had to look myself in the mirror and say, ‘What if your son comes home and tell you he’s gay? What are you going to do? How are you going to be? How are you going to act?’”
“It ain’t about him. He knows who he is. It’s about you. Who are you?”
Dwyane also added, “You know, whatever you want to do, it’s my job to support you and make sure that you have all the tools you need to be as happy as you can be in this world while you’re doing it.”
“While you’re growing into the person you are, that you’re going to grow into…”
“So, they’re not different, they’re normal. The ones that don’t understand it are the ones that are different.”
Zion is lucky to have such a loving and supportive family!
Dwyane and Gabrielle aren’t the only family to embrace their children regardless of their identities.
Actress Charlize Theron has two adopted children, August and Jackson, and recently spoke about how important it is for her to support her daughters equally.
In an interview with The Daily Mail, Charlize revealed that Jackson had told her at age 3 that she wasn’t a boy.
“Yes, I thought she was a boy, too,” Charlize told the publication . “Until she looked at me when she was three years old and said: ‘I am not a boy!'”
“So there you go!”
“I have two beautiful daughters who, just like any parent, I want to protect and I want to see thrive,” Charlize said.
In a recent interview with Pride Source she expanded on this situation.
“My daughter’s story is really her story, and one day, if she chooses, she’ll tell her story.”
Charlize explained why she said what she did to the Daily Mail, saying, “I feel like as her mother, for me, it was important to let the world know that I would appreciate it if they would use the right pronouns for her. “
“I think it became harder for us the older she got that people were still writing about her in the wrong pronouns, and also I was still talking about her in the press using the wrong pronoun.”
“It really hurt her feelings. I don’t want to be that mom, and that was really why I said what I said a while back.”
We love to see celebrities supporting their children!
