In a recent interview, actress, writer, and entrepreneur Gabrielle Union said that her transgender daughter, Zaya, felt “outed” by a picture of her 10th birthday party that stirred up a torrent of transphobic and homophobic hate comments online.
On the premiere episode of the new Facebook Watch show “Peace of Mind With Taraji,” Union spoke to hosts (and best friends) Taraji P. Henson and Tracie Jade Jenkins on her unconditional love for her daughter. She also discussed the challenges of protecting a trans child from the scrutiny of the public eye.
“Zaya’s peace is non-negotiable,” Union said in the Monday interview.
When 13-year-old Zaya Wade came out as transgender in February of this year, both Union and Zaya’s father, NBA superstar Dwyane Wade, were quick to advocate for their daughter. In an interview with Good Morning America, Wade told Robin Roberts that Zaya was “leading” her famous family “along this journey,” saying it was a “process for us to sit down with our daughter and find out what she likes and who she is.”
“My daughter was my first interaction when it comes to having to deal with this conversation,” he said at the time. “Hopefully I'm dealing with it the right way. ... Inside our home we see the smile on my 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.”
But Zaya’s journey toward coming out began long before that interview. According to Union, Zaya first felt unfairly scrutinized when a photo from her 10th birthday party started making the rounds on Twitter in 2017. In the photo, Zaya smiles while posing next to a cake shaped like three film reels stacked on top of one another, and Union said her daughter’s gender presentation was “dissected” by the internet.
“The guessing,” Union said, “as to who Zaya was and why” was a hurtful experience for the then 10-year-old girl.
Unfortunately for the teenager, the scrutiny didn’t stop there. Three months before she came out publicly, the Wades posted a post-Thanksgiving family portrait in which Zaya rocked painted nails, and the homophobes again came out of the woodwork. One commenter on Instagram asked Zaya’s parents why they would be “encouraging this at such a young age.”
Wade responded by telling critics to mind their own business. “Stupidity is [a part] of this world we live in — so [I] get it,” he tweeted. “But here’s the thing — I’ve been chosen to lead my family not y’all. So we will continue to be us and support each other with pride, love & a smile!”
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Since that time, Zaya Wade has become a style icon and proud out member of the trans community. But according to Union, her daughter had to come out “a few times,” which is, sadly, fairly common for trans kids. Zaya first came out to her teacher in 3rd grade before opening up to her parents about her trans identity. According to Wade, Zaya knew she was queer from the age of three.
In this week’s interview with Henson, Union also revealed that Zaya asked for a demisexual flag for her birthday. When her father asked if she was still transgender, it fell to Zaya to educate her parents about the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity.
Now it’s Zaya’s parents’ turn to educate everyone else. Henson, who started her Facebook Watch show to open up a wider conversation about mental health struggles and PTSD in the Black community, invited Union on the show to speak about her trauma as the result of a violent sexual assault at gunpoint 28 years ago. When asked by the host what she would like to impart to her daughters, Union simply said, “I want them to be at peace. I want them to know, feel, and receive love.”
With this kind of loving support at home, Union’s wish is bound to come true.
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