On Thursday, it was reported that former NBA star Dwayne Wade claimed he moved away from Florida because the state is not “accepting” of gays, especially since his son is transgender. But the facts of the move do not seem to line up with Wade’s claims.
In an article published on April 26, Wade insisted that he left Florida because of the state’s recent laws to restrict transgender athletes and to ban exposing school kids to inappropriate sexual content.
“That’s another reason why I don’t live in that state,” Wade said, referencing his 15-year-old son, who now claims to be a trans girl named Zaya, and who came out in 2020.
“I mean, obviously, the tax [situation] is great,” he said about living in Florida. “Having Wade County is great. But my family would not be accepted or feel comfortable there. And so that’s one of the reasons why I don’t live there,” he said of his desire to protect Zaya.
(L-R) Dwyane Wade, Zaya Wade, and Gabrielle Union attend the Better Brothers Los Angeles 6th annual Truth Awards at Taglyan Complex on March 07, 2020, in Los Angeles, California. (Andrew Toth/Getty Images)
However, the facts do not align with his telling of the tale.
For example, People had another article published three years ago claiming that the Wade family moved out of Miami in 2019. And that was before the Sunshine State’s legislature began moving in a more conservative direction on social issues.
In the February 2020 article, People noted that “Dwyane Wade‘s family has settled into their new surroundings in Los Angeles,” implying that the move was complete, most likely beginning at the end of 2019.
The magazine quoted Wade, who explained why they moved from Florida to California.
Former NBA player Dwayne Wade talks to the media during the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame official announcement for the Class of 2023 before the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Final Four semifinal game at NRG Stadium on April 01, 2023, in Houston, Texas. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
“We miss Miami,” Wade told the magazine at the time. “Of course, that definitely had become home to us, especially my kids. But my wife [Gabrielle Union] works in L.A., my daughters lived in L.A. with my wife, so we’ve got to go. My home is where my family is.”
Wade didn’t say a single word about his LGBTQ-friendly family not being welcome in Florida in the article from 2020. Indeed, he said his kids were loving life in Florida.
It appears that the recent laws that have sent so many left-wingers against Florida did not begin hitting the legislature until after Wade moved his family to California. The left’s most hated Gov., Ron DeSantis, didn’t sign the bill protecting women’s sports until 2021, the state’s anti-CRT bill went into law in 2022, and the state’s education law prohibiting schools from exposing kids to inappropriate sexual content was also not signed into law until 2022. All of this was several years after the Wade family had already left Miami.
It appears that Dwayne Wade is trying to make himself into an LGBTQ hero by retconning the reasons for his decision to leave Florida.
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