Gabrielle Union has some good — and timely — parental advice: just love your kids for who they are.
“We do not believe in any shaming for existing,” the iconic Bring It On actor told BuzzFeed in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. “That is bizarre, cruel, and harmful.”
Union and her husband, former professional basketball player Dwyane Wade, announced in 2020 that their daughter Zaya had come out to them as transgender. Since then, the family has become a high-profile example of parental support for trans youth, at a time when families of trans children around the U.S. are under attack.
Conservative lawmakers and pundits have insisted that adults who support and assist trans children in their social and/or medical transitions are child abusers — a notion that underpins the current wave of transphobic legislation as well as the bald authoritarianism of Texas governor Greg Abbott, who has urged state agencies to investigate the families of trans youth.
But for Union, trans kids aren’t just some political abstraction being used as a wedge in an endless culture war, they are a lived reality, and she frames the issue through a refreshingly real lens. As she told BuzzFeed, loving and supporting her children’s identities is just part of parenthood.
“As our children show up, it is our job to believe them when they tell us who they are,” she explained. “It’s our job to be loving, compassionate, protective guides for our children, but their lives are their lives and we have to respect that.”
Honestly, at a time when state legislatures around the country are considering the “hip-to-knee ratio” of trans student athletes and cruelly trying to cut trans kids off from life-saving medical care, it’s such a balm to hear a public figure talk about children like they are, you know, human beings.
Union went on to say that although she takes the same approach for all her children, she knows that “lots of other people do need that example” of supporting a trans daughter, which she’s happy to provide in her social media posts and interviews.
“So yeah, we’re gonna post our family, we’re going to live out loud, we’re going to love out loud, and we’re going to speak out loud and lead in however each situation calls for us to be leaders when things are not where they should be,” she concluded.
That kind of family dynamic was important to recreate in Union’s forthcoming film, a new remake of Cheaper By the Dozen co-starring Zach Braff. In the film, Union’s character also has a child who expresses a queer identity. The film will also explore blended family dynamics and discrepancies in racial experience.
Sounds just as cute as the Union-Wade household is IRL — but we’re still waiting on that queer teen comedy so our stanning can reach critical mass.
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