- Dwyane Wade appeared on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen Tuesday, and talked about reaching out to the cast of Pose.
- Wade said he and his wife Gabrielle Union wanted to make sure they were using the right pronouns for their daughter, Zaya.
- "We reached out to make sure that we had all the information that we needed because we are learning in this process as well," Wade said.
Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union are offering the world a parenting masterclass, as they talk about being the best possible allies to their daughter, Zaya, who's trans. Wade appeared on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on Tuesday, and a caller asked him what he learned after reaching out to the cast of Pose. "We didn’t have a lot of information and we reached out about pronouns. We wanted to make sure we didn’t get it wrong," Wade replied. "So we reached out about the pronouns and making sure that we said the right things to our daughter."
"She’s identified as a young lady and we wanted to make sure we got all the pronouns right," he continued. "We wanted to make sure that we got all of the language right. So we reached out to make sure that we had all the information that we needed because we are learning in this process as well."
On Twitter, Pose star Angelica Ross said she was "so touched" when Wade and Union reached out, adding that they were "so committed to getting it right as parents."
Wade also appeared on Good Morning America on Tuesday, telling Robin Roberts that Zaya led the family's conversations on her gender identity. "Zaya started doing more research. She was the one that sat down with us as a family and said, 'Hey, I don't think I'm gay.' And she went down the list and said, 'This is how I identify myself—I identify myself as a young lady. I think I'm a straight trans [girl], because I like boys,'" he said.
"It was a process for us to sit down with our daughter and find out who she is and what she likes and not put something on her. We decided to listen to her and she's leading us on this journey," Wade continued. "This is no game to us. We're about protecting her heart and about protecting her joy and we have to support them."
Wade spoke, too, about the importance of confronting himself, after saying "the wrong words and the wrong phrases" in the past. "I knew early on that I had to check myself—that I had to ask myself questions," he told Roberts. "My daughter was my first interaction when it comes to having to deal with this conversation. Hopefully I'm dealing with it the right way. Some people think I'm not, but inside our home we see the smile on our daughter's face, we see the confidence that she's able to walk around and be herself, and that's when you know you're doing right."
As Zaya put it herself, in a video Union shared on Instagram, "Be true to yourself, because what's the point of being on this earth if you're going to try to be someone you're not? You're not even living as yourself, which is the dumbest concept to me."
"I know it can get tough," she continued. "But I think you push through, and you be the best you."
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