NBA player Dwyane Wade gave a moving speech about showing support and love for his queer kid and growing as a man by witnessing their strength. He was talking with Matt Barnes on the podcast All the Smoke, when the host brought up Wade’s 12-year-old kid Zion.
Several weeks ago, Wade and his wife Gabrielle Union posted a Thanksgiving picture of their family to Instagram, where Zion was dressed in what some of their followers considered feminine clothes. And hateful comments followed immediately. Wade stepped up on Twitter to defend his family, saying, “Stupidity is a part of this world we live in.”
He responded to compliments of his parenting by saying of Zion: “First of all, you want to talk about strength and courage, my 12-year-old has way more than I have. I mean, you can learn something from your kids. We make sure our kids understand the power of their voice, you know? We want them to be whoever they feel that they can be in this world. That’s our goal. Understand you can be whoever and you can be whatever.”
You can watch the interview below, the part about what it’s like raising and supporting a queer child starts at the 30 minute mark (the video is time-stamped).