It may be serendipity that Future Hall of Fame basketball star Dwyane Wade is retiring at the end of the 2018-19 NBA season, which is in April.
In addition to spending time with his Hollywood actress wife, Gabrielle Union, and his biological and adopted sons, Wade, aka “D-Wade,” will be there personally to help navigate his 11-year-old son, Zion, through the oftentimes awkward prepubescent and adolescent years. Complications may be amplified for Zion Wade because he has revealed to the world that he is gay.
The entire Wade clan ventured out to suburban Miami Beach, Florida, for the island city’s annual Pride event. Union joined stepson Zion on a float during the parade, while his older brother, Zaire, baby Kaavia and other family members followed on foot.
All of the Wades showed Zion support by sporting rainbow colors to the event. According to D-Wade and Union’s InstaStories, the family went out afterward to eat at the R House in Wynwood, which featured drag performances.
Zion’s older brother Zaire also showed support for Zion, captioning an IG photo of them together: “Love you bro, no matter what. Gotcha back, kid. Support gang!”
D-Wade, 37, was not able to attend the Pride event on Sunday, as his Miami Heat had an NBA game in Toronto. The patriarch, however, was there in spirit for Zion as he posted this message on his InstaStories.
“We support each other with Pride!”
He also captioned an image of brothers Zion and Zaire embracing: “It’s a family thing.”
In another photo on his InstaStories, D-Wade said “Zion had his on [sic] cheering section today,” Dwyane wrote about the entire family going to the Pride event. “Wish i was there to see you smile kid!”
Last month, D-Wade supported Zion as he walked in his charity fashion show, “A Night on the Runwade.” D-Wade initially caught some heat for that support as some critics believed the famous father was allowing Zion to “bend and conform to societal pressures.” That fire was quickly extinguished, however, with the overwhelming majority of respondents throwing their support behind D-Wade
Other celebs such as musician Pharrell Williams lauded D-Wade and Union’s decision to publicly support their young son.
Dwayne Wade publicly supporting his son at pride, how do I send this man a father of the year award. 😭👏🏽
— Taurus (@coconutoilpapi) April 7, 2019
One member of the LGBTQ community was actually envious of the support that young Zion Wade has received from his family:
As a queer black man it’s so amazing to see the way that @itsgabrielleu & @DwyaneWade embrace the LGBTQ community & give their son room to express himself which is something you rarely see in the black community.Your son will benefit so much from that support,Im so happy for him
— CHRISTIAN ROSE 🕊️ (@christxrose) April 7, 2019
The Venn Diagram of folks flabbergasted by Dwyane Wade’s son understanding that he is queer at a young age and people who have zero qualms saying that a 5-hour-old newborn is “going to break all the girls’ hearts when he’s older” is a single circle.
— Shannon Miller (@ShannonL_Miller) April 8, 2019
