Dwyane Wade said his trans daughter, Zaya, taught him to be a better parent

• Dwyane Wade told Today his daughter Zaya taught him how to be a better parent.
• Zaya, who came out as trans in February 2020, showed Wade what LGBTQ allyship looks like in parenting.
• Wade and his wife Gabrielle Union are now vocal advocates for LGBTQ+ youth with the guidance of Zaya.

Dwyane Wade said raising his 14-year-old transgender daughter Zaya made him a better parent.

Wade was very supportive of Zaya when she came out as trans in February 2020. Later that month, Wade told Robin Roberts on Good Morning America he had to do a lot of learning and listening after Zaya came out.

Since then, Wade told Today's Craig Melvin on Thursday, he has learned a tremendous amount about what LGBTQ-allyship looks like in parenting.

"I didn't know anything, really wasn't knowledgeable about the LGBTQ+ community," Wade told Melvin. "What it has done is it opened my eyes and my ears to something greater and bigger than I, and my daughter has allowed us gracefully to be her support system."

He and his wife Gabrielle Union have become vocal advocates for queer and trans youth, and in May they spoke out against the wave of anti-trans legislation sweeping the US.

Wade told Today that Zaya is the reason he and his family have the tools to support LGBTQ+ people, teaching them how to listen and how to be an ally. In an interview for the Time 100 list in September 2020, Union and Wade wrote their daughter Zaya is "wildly inspirational" to their family.

"She's the strong one in this family," Wade said during his Today interview. "She's a hero. It's my wife, it's our family's job to make sure that we listen to her."