Dwyane Wade is launching a new transgender youth support community called Translatable
Dwayne Wade continues his work to impact society and was recently celebrated this Thursday after receiving the Elevate Prize Catalyst Award at the Make Good Famous Summit of The Elevate Prize Foundation. He may have won three NBA titles and become a Hall of Famer after his 14 seasons in the league, but this last one may be his most influential award.
Before accepting this award, he shed some light on his daughter’s problems. “We did a lot of good things here so it wasn’t easy to leave,” the Heat icon told the media. “But the community didn’t exist because of Zaya, so the community didn’t exist because of us.”
Younger Zaya, who will turn 17 at the end of the month, came out as transgender in 2020 when Florida passed an anti-transgender law. 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 that supports transgender youth
– WFAA (@wfaa) May 24, 2024
When accepting the award, Dwayne shared it with his daughter and credited her for being the inspiration behind Translatable, a new online community created to support transgender children and the people around them.
“The question was asked to him saying, ‘If you have one thing you want to see change in this community, what would it be?’,” the former player recalled. “And, for him, it’s going well with the parents. Go straight to adults. Go straight to us. They are not children. Say it. And so he wanted to create a place that felt safe for parents and their children. So is Translatable, and it is his child.”
After hearing about Wade’s plans, the foundation’s CEO Carolina García Jayaram said she would make an additional donation to the new facility, which was designed with the support of The Trevor Project and the Human Rights Campaign.
“Dwyane Wade and what he stands for speaks volumes for the entire foundation,” Jayaram told reporters. “He is a hero in sports and beyond basketball. He’s been in a position of social justice almost since the beginning of his NBA career and most people don’t know that. “
Translatable is already generating a lot of positive comments while Wade is being celebrated for his social media initiatives
The executive director of the Ali Forney Center, which serves homeless LGBTQ+ youth, expressed admiration for Wade’s commitment to community outreach. He explained why Translatable comes at a critical time for young people, as more than 500 proposals have been introduced into law this year in the United States.
“Not all bills become law, but they are all acts of hate that affect our children in the most damaging ways,” said Alexander Roque. “We know statistically that every time there’s an anti-LGBTQ bill in the media, there’s a 400 percent increase in youth suicide calls. We also know that we are seeing a significant increase in LGBTQ youth due to family rejection.
So to have a celebrity who is so invested in the community, it helps to change the tide of what is happening to our children and perhaps one of the most hopeful moments in the hope that it will change the tide.”
Actress and comedian Phoebe Robinson also expressed her gratitude to the South Beach icon, as she followed up her post-basketball career by coming out on a number of issues.
“At a time when people are very worried about saying anything because they only think about their value, I think the fact that you think about humanity is amazing, it really emphasizes the importance of communicating with the community to help protect people and help them grow and flourish,” she said.
