In the last few years, it seems like we’ve come a long way to accepting members of the LGBTQ community. After all, we have TV shows, pride parades, and hell, we even have an openly gay presidential candidate, Pete Buttigieg. This seems all fine until we actually look at the reality of gay and lesbian suicide rates. LGBTQ adolescents are at a higher risk of committing suicide than other kids according to a 2018 study.
Knowing this makes the stakes a lot higher when those criticisms reach a national platform. In lemans terms, being critical of a gay adolescent is literally risking his/her life.
It all started when an innocuous Thanksgiving family photo surfaced of Wade’s son wearing a crop top, and sporting long white nails on Instagram.
After some took issue with the family photo as if the Wades’ were supposed to hide their son, Wade wrote, “As a parent my only goal is that my kids feel that I see them, love them and support them”.
“I think as a family, we should support each other. That’s our job,” Wade told Variety in June. “And my job as a father is to facilitate their lives and to support them and be behind them in whatever they want to do.”
Even though this is not the first time the couple has had to defend their son, this seems to be the most amount of criticism they’ve received.
Stupidity,” Wade wrote, is a part of “this world we live in — so I get it.”
Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union should not only be commended for defending his son, but his handling of the criticisms should also serve as the public blueprint of how to handle the umbrage that has come his family’s way.
Wade is not only saving his sone from the unnecessary critique, but he’s also saving his life.
We’re professional journalists who proudly advocate for equal rights. We unite those who are marginalized.
