The Spaces In Between

the heart-warming story of Dwyane Wade and his daughter Zaya.

I first became aware that Dwyane Wade was parenting an LGBTQ child in December, when a facebook friend posted an interview where he declared his support for his 12 year old. One of the things that I appreciated was this glimpse at a father learning how to talk about his child (perhaps not using quite the right language), but emphasizing his love and support. He said:

“I’ve watched my son, from day one, become into who she now eventually has come into…For me, nothing changes with my love. Nothing changes with my responsibilities. Only thing I got to do now is get smarter and educate myself more.” (CBS News)

This February, Wade and his family formally introduced their daughter as Zaya, and confirmed that she uses she/her pronouns. In the last few weeks Dwyane Wade has spoken out about his journey as a parent on Good Morning America, and on the Ellen Show, among other places. And while there has been some backlash, I have seen many wonderful, supportive stories about the family, and the way that Wade has stepped up to support his daughter.

This is particularly significant because as Vanessa Clark says in her article for Vox, “Black trans kids desperately need public support.” Many black trans kids are not fortunate to have the support of their families, and Clark explains that it is ground-breaking to have a black celebrity, an athlete, standing up for trans folks.

Wade has also modeled what it looks like to educate yourself so that you can be the best parent possible. “Now it’s our job to, one, go out and get information, to reach out to every relationship that we have,” he told Ellen. “My wife reached out to everybody on the cast of Pose.” (As reported on LGBTQ Nation). This is what it looks like to support and love your child unconditionally.

In other good news

This feminist bookstore, The Second Shelf, in the UK is donating to the trans organization, Mermaids, every time someone buys a JK Rowling book. (For folks who don’t know JK Rowling publicly tweeted support of a anti-trans activist in the UK in December. Learn more here.)

Also, in not-so-recent-but-still-important news, New Jersey passed a law that prevents folks from using a gay/trans panic defense in murder cases (becoming the 9th state to forbid this particular legal strategy). And more recently, Virginia banned conversion therapy and became the first Southern State to pass a law that bans LGBTQ discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations.

now for the not so good news.

Over the last few months several states have been introducing bills that would negatively affect the lives of trans kids. Georgia, Missouri, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Washington, and West Virginia have all introduced laws that would affect trans kids’ ability to play sports, restricting their participation in state sports competitions to teams/events based on their sex assigned at birth (as reported by the Daily Beast). As this NBC article featuring a cisgender girl who beat the cis boys in her regional wrestling championship shows, sports is not just about archaic ideas about biology/hormones/muscle mass, but also about skills and training! We should not be preventing trans kids from playing the sports they love, and I hope these bills are defeated.

I also hope that these next set of bills are defeated. In the beginning of February there were 8 states that were considering bills that would have made it a crime to give trans kids medical treatment related to transition (See Nico Lang’s Vice article.) Thankfully the first bill to be considered by a state legislature, House Bill 1057 in South Dakota, died in committee once it moved from the House to the Senate, but Ohio is considering similar legislation, along with South Carolina, Florida, Missouri, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky and New Hampshire.

I have been following these cases as best as I can, and many academics, activists, and parents, have been speaking out and fighting against these bills. Some articles that are worth reading include sociologist Tey Meadow’s article in the Washington Post, “Restricting care for transgender teens would be a terrible mistake” and Kate Sosin’s article, “South Dakota Trans Youth Reeling After Years of Fighting for Basic Rights.”

I wish that we didn’t have to continually point to suicide statistics and stories of risk and harm when talking about and defending trans youth, (as many of the articles do above). But I also know that many trans youth would be harmed if any of these bills passed. It is important to educate people about how life-saving and life-affirming medical transition can be, and the risk associated with blocking access to that kind of care.

Is there an important news story that I missed? let me know in the comments!

Photo of stethoscope is by Negative Space on Pexel.