Zaya Wade, world-renowned basketball player Dwayne Wade’s middle child, came out as a trans girl in Feb. 2020, and the world has fawned over her father’s unrelenting support ever since.

At 12 years old, Zaya was ready to let the world know who she really was. Her father sat down with Ellen DeGeneres to share Zaya’s coming out. He recalled her coming out moment and shared with the audience the conversation that followed.

“I said, ‘You are a leader. You are a leader, and this is an opportunity to allow you to be a voice,’” he said. “Right now, [her story will be told] through us because she’s 12 years old, but eventually it will be through her.”

Wade’s unwavering love and advocacy for Zaya has been a beacon for many trans youths seeking representation of a loving relationship between a parent and a trans child. Given the current legislative pushback against trans youth nationwide wherein 20 states have instated a law or policy banning gender affirming care, with seven more states already reconsidering, Dwayne Wade reminds us of how much trans youth have to lose without support. Just yesterday, Gov. Abbott at Texas signed a bill that bans trans athletes from participating in collegiate sports into law.

Given that it’s Pride month, parental support for LGBTQ youth is especially crucial at an unprecedented time where over 500 anti-LGBTQ bills are being proposed throughout the country. According to a study that was published by the University of Texas at Austin earlier this year, LGBTQ children were less likely to report symptoms of depression when they had general support from their parents. Zaya doesn’t take Wade’s support for granted.

“‘To have someone who is like, ‘I got you’ is priceless,’” she told Dazed in an exclusive interview.

In honor of Father’s Day, here are seven powerful ways Wade has shown up for his trans child:

Back in March, Wade was a guest episode on the I AM ATHLETE podcast. He talked about having his first child at twenty years old and how that charged him to look internally to prepare for the ‘what ifs’ of parenting. Inevitably, Zaya and her coming out in 2020 came up.

“At that moment, everything that I was taught went out the window because now I’m a parent and my sole job and my sole responsibility is to make sure this kid grows up knowing that they’re supported and loved,” he said during the episode, sitting down with four other cis men. “I’m looking at a child that’s crying, that’s afraid to tell their father that they’re different than what [I thought they were]. I realized that I needed to do better, and I needed to do more and educate myself.”

And so he did. According to Wade, after Zaya’s coming out, he picked up the phone and he researched as much as he could.

A few months after Zaya came out as trans to the public Feb. 2020, Wade was quick to make it clear that he loves his daughter unwaveringly. A few months later, when she dyed her hair pink, Wade showed his support by dying his hair a bright red.

In a TikTok video Wade posted, they’re posed in the car, their hairs bright and complimentary to each other’s.

“When they think they know you, switch it up. #Free #RedHairDontCare,” he captioned his post with Zaya.

Zaya Malachi Airamis Wade. That’s her full, self-defined name she chose herself back in Aug. 2022.

Wade had reportedly filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court to legally change his daughter’s name. In his petition to help change her name, his former wife and Zaya’s mother, Siohvaughn Funches, was informed of the filing, although Wade had “full authority” to request the change on her behalf, according to BET.

While Zaya was in the process of changing her name, her birth mother Funches spoke out against Wade and his support of her transition, claiming that Wade’s publicity over Zaya was for financial gain. More than that, she filed a petition to block Zaya’s name change

“I have concerns that [Wade] may be pressuring our child to move forward with the name and gender change in order to capitalize on the financial opportunities that he has received from companies,” she explained, according to celebrity news site The Blast.

Wade took it to Instagram to release a lengthy statement, where he stressed that “instead of actually trying to co-parent,” Funches had spent more time with her lawyers “than she’s left her home to actually see or have truly spoken and LISTENED to Zaya over all these years.”

While appearing on Rachel Nichols’s show Headliners in April, Wade—who had just been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame—shared that he and his family had moved out of Florida due to the increasing strike against trans people. Although the federal judge temporarily blocked the recent gender affirming care ban in Florida, given the state’s history of signing multiple anti-trans bills under Gov. DeSantis’ leadership, Florida was still unsafe for trans kids like Zaya.

“I have to make decisions for my family—not just personal, individual decisions,” Wade said. “Having Wade County is great. But my family would not be accepted or feel comfortable there. And so that’s one of the reasons why I don’t live there.”

For her 16th birthday back in February, Wade and actress Gabrielle Union—Zaya’s stepmom—made a tribute. Their love for her speaks for itself:

“Zaya, as your father, all I’ve wanted to do was get it right. I’ve sat back and watched how gracefully you’ve taken on public scrutiny. And even though it’s not easy, I watched you walk out of that house every morning as yourself. I admire how you’ve handled the ignorance in our world.”

At the 2023 Miu Miu Paris Fashion Week show this March, Zaya made her runway debut as a model. On the runway, she wore a green tunic dress and matching peacoat with a tan clutch in her arm and strutting in pointed-toe heels. Her greatest accessory, however, was Wade and Union’s smiles in the audience while she walked down the runway.

Hypebae, a fashion platform, shared a video of the fashion show aftermath, where Wade embraces his daughter. The tweet captioned: “This heartfelt moment with Zaya Wade and Dwayne Wade at the Miu Miu Paris Fashion Week show is EVERYTHING. 😭❤️”