Dwyane Wade has taken steps to legally change the name and gender of his trans daughter Zaya Wade.
Over the last couple of years, the former basketball player has fostered a loving and affirming environment for his daughter – who publicly came out as trans in 2020.
On 18 August, Wade continued to showcase his support for Zaya by filing a petition to update her name and gender.
According to The Blast, the documents were submitted to a Los Angeles Court and requested that her name be legally changed to Zaya Malachi Airamis Wade.
The filing also asked that she be listed as female on her documents moving forward to align with her gender identity.
Alongside the request, the filing revealed that Wade’s ex-wife and Zaya’s mother, Siohvaughn Funches, was not required to give consent per their custody agreement.
However as a courtesy, the NBA star sent a notice of the petition to Zaya’s mother.
Wade’s legal filings come a couple of months after he gave a heartfelt interview about Zaya’s coming-out journey.
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“I mean, I went years without telling my chef that I didn’t like cilantro in my burger – and that was hard as an adult,” he told CNN at the 2022 Time100 Summit event.
“It took me years to have the confidence to say that. My daughter, eight years old, came home and had the confidence to say: ‘This is who I am. This is who I’m going to be.'”
The former Miami Heat player went on to say that after Zaya came out, he began to have deeper conversations with her to better grasp her life and gender identity.
“I started having to have a little bit older conversations with her about life and really get a chance to understand because she knows things and herself and I don’t… And I’m still learning, and there’s still information out here, but just to sit down with her and show her that I’m concerned and I care, that I want to know more, that I want to learn,” he continued.
Towards the end of his interview, Wade said he was fearful for Zaya due to the growing number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills and violence against the trans community.
“As blessed as my daughter is to have parents who can support her, I’m still afraid every moment she leaves her house – and not just because of gun violence, but because of the way that people perceive her in this world.”
Watch Dwyane Wade’s full Time100 Summit interview here.
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