Dwyane Wade is a Miami legend, having spent the most of his 16-year career with the Heat and earning three NBA titles with the team. Though the 13-time NBA All-Star is more than welcome in the city, he recently stated that Florida’s anti-LGBTQ laws forced him to relocate his family.
“I have to make decisions for my family, not just personal, individual decisions,” Wade told Rachel Nichols on her Headliners show, per TMZ. “I mean, obviously, the taxes are great, having ‘Wade’ County is great, but my family would not be accepted or feel comfortable there. So that’s one of the reasons why I don’t live there.”
Zion, the former basketball star’s son, came out as transgender in 2020, as How Africa previously reported. Since then, the 41-year-old and his wife, Gabrielle Union-Wade, have shown steadfast support for their child as well as the LGBTQ community. A Los Angeles Superior Court recently allowed a filing to change Zion’s name and gender. The kid has changed her name to Zaya Malachi Airamis Wade and now identifies as female.
However, the state of Florida has come under fire for passing laws that activists and the LGBTQ community see as discriminatory. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the “Parental Rights in Education” bill, often known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, in 2022. According to NPR, the contentious law first prohibited Florida public school teachers from teaching or discussing sexual orientation or gender identity with kids in kindergarten through grade three. It was recently expanded to prohibit certain lessons up to grade 12.
Other proposals submitted by Republican legislators in the state include the “Safety in Private Spaces Act,” which tries to prohibit persons from using restrooms that do not correspond to their “biological sex” – the sex assigned at birth. Anyone who violates the proposed law will face a second-degree misdemeanor charge.
Florida will also be the latest state to implement limitations on transition-related drugs for transgender children in March 2023.
Wade has been upfront and encouraging about his son’s shift. In an interview with The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2020, the retired basketball player discussed the teenager’s coming out.
“Zaya came home and said, ‘Hey, I want to talk to you guys. I think going forward, I’m ready to live my truth. I want to be referenced as she and her. I would love for you guys to call me Zaya,’” he said.
“So internally it’s our job to one, go out and get information, to reach out to every relationship that we have. My wife [Gabrielle Union] reached out to everyone on the cast of Pose. We just tried to figure out as much information as we can to help our child be her best self.”