Dwyane Wade applauds Marlon Wayans’s comments about supporting trans son

Former NBA player Dwyane Wade says he “salutes” actor and comedian Marlon Wayans after the comedian spoke out in support of his transgender son.

Wayans recently spoke about his son, Kai, while promoting his new stand-up special, Good Grief. “I talk about the transition [in the set],” he told the hosts of The Breakfast Club earlier this month, noting that he meant his own transition “as a parent, going from ignorance and denial to complete unconditional love and acceptance.”

Related:

Marlon Wayans reveals that his son is transgender & how he wants him to feel free

“I think there’s a lot of parents out there that need to have that message.”

“I think there’s a lot of parents out there that need to have that message,” Wayans said, “and I know I’m dealing with it. It was a very painful situation for me but, man, it’s one of the best funniest hours I probably could ever imagine.”

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“The more you know yourself, the more you can govern yourself, the more you live your truth, the happier your existence,” Wayans continued. “So, if they can’t get that in a household with their father and their mother, how the f**k do I send them out into the world with that kind of confidence? And I’m just so proud of them for being them – but that don’t mean that I ain’t got jokes.”

Wayans also said that he had also recently performed the set at an even attended by “world leaders.”

“I felt like I want to do this set right here because it’s important to me,” he explained. “All you world leaders having this summit, I want you to think about these people… and how to be inclusive of this next generation.”

Last week at GQ’s Men of the Year event in West Hollywood, Variety’s Marc Malkin asked Wade, whose own daughter is transgender, about Wayans’s comments.

“I think unconditional love allows us to step in and listen and learn of what we do not know and what we were not taught, especially in the Black community,” the former NBA star said. “I salute Marlon for speaking out and speaking up about this experience with his child just the same way as I’ve done. We’re just the voices that are speaking for our kids right now before they get an opportunity to grab that microphone and speak for themselves. I salute him.”

“This is his experience and what he’s dealing with. He’s coming out selling it from his point of view,” he added. “It’s great for fathers especially to speak on them from their point of view and how they had to handle it and deal with it.”

Since Wade’s daughter Zaya came out as trans, he and wife Gabrielle Union have become outspoken advocates for trans rights. Most recently, Wade served as executive producer on The Dads, a short documentary about five fathers of transgender people.