NBA HOFer Dwyane Wade Creates 'Translatable' Community to Support Transgender Youth

NBA Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade received the Elevate Prize Catalyst Award at Thursday's Make Good Famous Summit for creating Translatable—an online community aimed to help and support both transgender children and their families—with his 16-year-old daughter Zaya.

"The question was presented to [Zaya] as, 'If you have one thing that you want to see change in this community, what would it be?'" Wade told the Associated Press. "And, for her, it goes right to parents. It goes right to the adults. It goes right to us. It's not the kids. It's us. And so she wanted to create a space that felt safe for parents and their kids. That's what Translatable is, and it's her baby."

Wade said the hope for the online community is to "support growth, mental health, and well-being, and that this space ignites more conversations leading to greater understanding and acceptance."

The plan is to use the $250,000 in unrestricted funding from winning the Elevate Prize Catalyst Award to directly support Translatable.

Elevate Prize Foundation CEO Carolina Garcìa Jayaram added that her nonprofit made a separate donation to the project.

"Dwyane Wade and what he represents speaks to the ethos of the whole foundation," she told the AP. "He is such a hero in the sports universe and even beyond basketball. He's been in the social justice space almost since the very beginning of his NBA career, and most people don't know that."

Wade, who spent almost his entire playing career with the Miami Heat and made the area his home, moved his family to California after Zaya came out as transgender in 2020 amid anti-trans legislation in the state of Florida.

"We've done so many great things here so it wasn't easy to leave," he said of the move. "But the community wasn't here for Zaya, so the community wasn't here for us."

Translatable will be supported by the Human Rights Campaign and The Trevor Project and will be launched in Florida, with a focus on helping communities of color.

"We understand that in this state that not everyone thinks the way some others think," Wade noted. "Like most things in life, once you get to know them, you have more ability to be understanding. And so if you don't want to know them, then you stay ignorant in a sense."