Dwyane Wade, Gabrielle Union-Wade advocate for Black trans rights at NAACP Image Awards

Former NBA star Dwyane Wade and actress Gabrielle Union-Wade called for increased visibility and advocacy to protect the rights and lives of Black transgender people while accepting the President’s Award at the 2023 NAACP Image Awards.

The couple dedicated the award — which recognizes outstanding achievements in public service — to their teenage daughter, Zaya, who is transgender.

“Zaya, as your father, all I wanted to do was get it right,” Wade said Saturday during the couple’s acceptance speech. “I’ve sat back and watched how gracefully you’ve taken on public scrutiny, and even though it’s not easy. I watched you walk out of the house every morning as yourself. I admire how you’ve handled the ignorance in our world. I admire that you face every day.”

“To say that your village is proud of you is an understatement,” Wade told his daughter.

Union-Wade added that the Black community is standing on the precipice of a “new era of activism.”

“A new era that demands our collective answer to one simple question: Will we fight for some, or will we fight for all of our people?” she said, eliciting a round of applause from the audience.

Union-Wade said groups like the NAACP must step up to the plate to defend Black LGBTQ people — especially Black transgender and gender-nonconforming people — whose dual identities put them at greater risk for discrimination and violence.

“Even as we demand equality at the top of our lungs, we consistently fail to extend our advocacy to protect some of our most vulnerable among us,” Union-Wade said. “Black trans people are being targeted, terrorized and hunted in this country. Everyday. Everywhere.”

An October report from Everytown for Gun Safety, a national organization advocating for stronger gun control laws, found that the number of transgender people killed in the U.S. nearly doubled between 2017 and 2021, driven primarily by gun violence.

More than 70 percent of transgender homicide victims were Black women, according to the report, despite Black people accounting for just 13 percent of the nation’s total transgender population, according to a recent estimate by the Williams Institute.

A December report from the Human Rights Campaign, a leading LGBTQ advocacy group, found that at least 38 transgender people were killed in the U.S. in 2022, a majority of them women of color. At least 50 fatalities were cataloged by the group in 2021, the deadliest year on record for transgender and gender-nonconforming people.

Union-Wade on Saturday said she and Wade approach their activism as parents “who love our children and will do whatever the hell we can to keep them seen and secure and safe.”

“This is a conversation worth having in ways that can actually build bridges; that don’t fan the flames of hatred or division; that don’t enable lawmakers or justice systems to look the other way when Black trans people are under attack,” she said.

“We are humbled and we are hopeful for the future,” Union-Wade said. “We are hopeful that we may witness a real shift in the fight for justice. The moment, the movement makes room for everyone. Everyone.”