Dwayne Wade continues his mission to have a social impact and was recently celebrated this Thursday after receiving the nonprofit’s Elevate Prize Catalyst Award at The Elevate Prize Foundation’s Make Good Famous Summit. He might have won three NBA titles and became an Hall of Famer after his 14 seasons in the league, but this last one might be his most influential accolade.
Before accepting this prize he shed a light over his daughter’s troubles. “We’ve done so many great things here so it wasn’t easy to leave,” the Heat icon told the press. “But the community wasn’t here for Zaya, so the community wasn’t here for us.”
Young Zaya, who is about to turn 17 at the end of the month, revealed herself as transgender back in 2020 while Florida was enduring anti-trans legislation. This eventually meant that the entire Wade family sold their home in the Sunshine State and moved to California.
NBA great Dwyane Wade launches Translatable, an online community supporting transgender youthhttps://t.co/toCnenj9YJ
— WFAA (@wfaa) May 24, 2024
When he accepted the award, Dwayne shared it with his daughter and gave her credit for being the inspiration behind Translatable, the new online community created in support of transgender children and the people around them.
“The question was presented to her as, ‘If you have one thing that you want to see change in this community, what would it be?’,” the former player recalled. “And, for her, it goes right to parents. It goes right to the adults. It goes right to us. It’s not the kids. It’s us. And so she wanted to create a space that felt safe for parents and their kids. That’s what Translatable is, and it’s her baby.”
After hearing Wade’s plans, the foundations CEO Carolina García Jayaram said that she will make a separate additional donation to the new platform, that was designed with support from The Trevor Project and the Human Rights Campaign.
“Dwyane Wade and what he represents speaks to the ethos of the whole foundation,” Jayaram told the press. “He is such a hero in the sports universe and even beyond basketball. He’s been in the social justice space almost since the very beginning of his NBA career and most people don’t know that.”
Translatable is already generating lots of positive comments while Wade is being celebrated for his social initiatives
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