Dwyane Wade‘s 12-year-old son Zaya, who was born Zion, shared an empowering message for other kids struggling with their gender identity.
Zaya, who is seen in a video uploaded to Instagram by stepmom actress Gabrielle Union, encourages other gender confused youth to be true to themselves and come out of the closet.
“Don’t even worry about that, just be true to yourself,” Zaya said, while riding in a golf cart with retired NBA star Dwyane.
“What’s the point of being on this earth if you’re just going to try to be someone you’re not? It’s like, you’re not even living your true self, which is like, the dumbest concept to me. Be true and don’t really care what the stereotypical way of being you is.”
Gabrielle proudly tweeted alongside the video:
“Meet Zaya. She’s compassionate, loving, whip smart and we are so proud of her. It’s Ok to listen to, love & respect your children exactly as they are. Love and light good people.”
Interestingly, Zaya avoids reinforcing the stereotypical feminine style of wearing dresses, wigs and makeup to imitate biological women.
Instead, the youngster wears a gender neutral golf shirt, black jacket and cap.
When Dwyane asks about the struggle to be authentic even when “people are being mean”, Zaya added: “I know it can get tough, definitely. But I think you can push through, and you be the best you and especially more recently, it’s become more accepting.”
Zaya continued:
“But I think even through bad times, you just gotta push through. It’s worth it. I feel like it’s very worth it when you reach that point of like, yourself. You can look in the mirror and say hi to yourself, ‘nice to meet you,’ instead of, like, I don’t even know who I am. It’s like, full identity crisis.”
Gabrielle was ridiculed on social media after Dwayne told Ellen Degeneres that his wife turned to the cast of cross-dressers and drag queens on the hit TV series POSE for advice on dealing with her gender confused stepson.
Gabrielle, 47, did not respond to the criticism.
She plans to sue Simon Cowell for smoking around her before she was let go from her gig as a judge on America’s Got Talent.
California has a strict anti-smoking policy which bans employers from knowingly or intentionally permitting… the smoking of tobacco products in an enclosed place of employment.
Twitter responded to Gabrielle’s threat as the last desperate act of a soon-to-be, if-not-already blacklisted actress.
“Good luck getting any work,” one user tweeted. Another Twitter user wrote: “Wow, I use [sic] to like her, before she revealed this crazy side. I’d say she is single-handedly ruining her career.”
