Dwyane Wade blasts bills barring transgender athletes from women’s sports

Dwyane Wade is blasting legislation that bars transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports, saying lawmakers should “see how it is to walk through this world” as his daughter.

The former Miami Heat player, whose 15-year-old daughter, Zaya, came out as transgender in 2019, called bills requiring schools to designate sports teams according to the team members’ biological sexes at birth “a joke.”

“As sad as it is, as blessed as my daughter is to have parents who can support her, I’m still afraid every moment she leaves the house, and not just because of gun violence but because of the way that people perceive her in this world,” Wade said at the Time 100 Summit in New York on Tuesday. His comments came just hours after Louisiana passed its Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.

Asked by CNN’s Poppy Harlow for his reaction to the Louisiana legislation and similar transgender sports bans being introduced throughout the country, Wade replied, “This is our life. We live this, and so when you’re out there making rules, and if you’re not experiencing this and you’re not living this and you’re just out there signing away and making laws, that’s not right.”

“Come live a day in my world with my daughter,” the 40-year-old author and former shooting guard added.

“We’re losing the human side of us,” he said.

Without naming it, Wade also appeared to reference Florida’s controversial Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by its critics. Under the law signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in March, classroom instruction related to sexual orientation or gender identity will be restricted in the state’s primary schools.

“It doesn’t make sense to me,” Wade said.

“We’re in this world right now where it’s like, hey, we get information, we’re learning information, social media. We can find everything we want to know about life, right? It’s like our kids can go find all those things,” he said.

“But then it’s like, hey, don’t talk about this school. Don’t do this in school. Don’t do that,” he continued.

“Why are we not talking about it? Why are we not educating our kids? Why are we not educating ourselves? Instead of trying to, you know, close the book on it,” Wade said.

“We’re not going to close the book on anyone being gay, bisexual, transgender,” he added.

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