Waka Flocka Flame is under fire over his past comments about Dwyane Wade's daughter Zaya.
In a recent episode of his reality TV show Waka & Tammy: What the Flocka, his stepdaughter Charlie Williams — whom he raises alongside his wife Tammy Rivera — revealed to the rapper that her girlfriend would escort her at her quinceañera (15th birthday party).
In the episode, Williams said she was surprised to receive her stepfather's approval so easily.
But many social media users noted that they feel Waka (né Juaquin Malphurs), 34, is not actually supportive of the LGBTQ+ community.
Waka responded to the backlash with a video he shared on social media. Though it is unclear which social media platform the rapper originally posted the clip, Instagram account The Neighborhood Talk, LLC, reposted the video on Saturday.
In the clip, Waka said that he is "not a phobic; no I'm not none of that."
"But what I'm gonna say bro is, I'm gonna support my daughter," he continued. "Y'all stop running with this narrative that she coming out 'cause she ain't never hiding from nothing. She's not no face, no spokesman, no nothing. She's living her f—ing life, man. That's all it needs to be. Cut it out man, that s— lame."
He went on to say, "2021 adults, y'all so damn lame about talking about kids. The way y'all talk about kids, that s— is crazy."
At one point he added, "Who raised y'all? Serious question for y'all. Are you raising a teenager Are you a parent? Do you know how it feels? I'm not supportive of nothing, this is my daughter. The word 'supportive' don't matter when you're a parent because you're automatically doing that. Y'all [are] tripping."
One Instagram user claimed that Waka Flocka was not supportive of Wade's daughter Zaya, now 13, at the time of her gender transition, writing, "So you're upset that we are talking about your situation with your daughter, but yet you were the same one that was talking about Dwyane Wade's daughter Zaya. Make it make sense, sir."
Another simply wrote, "What is he talking about ? Nobody [is] talking about his daughter 😂😂😂😂." Wrote someone else, "If contradiction was a person."
And another added, "When DWade supported his daughter, none of this was logical to you. Now you have to understand 😂 Life is funny."
The reactions come after a previous interview with DJ Whoo Kid that aired last February, in which Waka was asked by the host (né Yves Mondesir, 48) to share his opinion about "Dwyane Wade cutting his son's [expletive]" — which many viewers found to be a very offensive and distasteful question, especially as many members of the LGBTQ+ community continue to fight for equality.
Flame responded, "I'm not gonna tell anybody to wait and how to deal with your kid or anybody's sexuality — I would just say, why are the headlines about it? What if somebody else got a 12-year-old son who never thought about that but now he's seeing another kid getting a headline for doing it. Kids wanna be famous, so could they possibly be as famous as him doing it? But that's a kid — kids' minds are undeveloped."
He later added, "Me personally, I'm not doing my son like that, so I could just speak on how I feel. I don't know about shorty."
(A 2019 study found that "decisions to socially transition are driven by a child's understanding of their own gender." Says Russell Toomey of the University of Arizona, "This is critically important information given that recent public debates and flawed empirical studies erroneously implicate 'pushy' parents, peers, or other sources, like social media, in the rising prevalence of children and adolescents who identify as transgender.")
A rep for Waka Flocka Flame did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.
But social media influencer Zoie had a stark response to Waka's support of his stepdaughter's sexuality, saying he feels it is "bulls—," later adding that, "Everybody should be treated fairly, no matter who you like."
"This has nothing to do with the children, like Waka Flocka's daughter, this is just [about] grown ups, people in general, the world," Zoie began in an Instagram story video that was reposted on Twitter on Saturday.
He later said,"Waka, a couple of months ago was bashing somebody about their gay son. Well not bashing, but you know, didn't agree."
" … So it's just funny because in the comments everybody's like, 'Oh, he's such a good dad, he agrees, letting his daughter be her.' But when you talked about Dwyane Wade and Zaya … Zaya was only 13," added the influencer.
Waka's wife Rivera, 34, responded to Zoie in an Instagram story video of her own, which was also reposted on Twitter on Saturday. In it, she claimed Zoie's statements were incorrect, stating that in Zoie's video, he said Waka did not bash Zaya, but was instead sharing his opinion.
"Zoie, you knew I was gonna respond because you're talking about my husband and my child," she began. "So, a person is not allowed to have an opinion of how they feel without being a basher or be labeled as going against something or hating someone? They can't have an opinion?"
"With that being said, not once did he ever disrespect Zaya," she claimed.
Rivera later said, "Are people allowed to grow? Are people allowed to change? Because it seems like you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't."
She went on to admit that, "Once upon a time, I didn't believe in gay marriages because I grew up being taught from certain people around me that [it] was wrong."
But the reality TV personality said she had a change of heart after a friend "educated me and sat me down," Rivera said. "And till this day, I will never say no ignorant s— like that again, ever, because I understand now, and I'm educated now."
Wade, 39, and his wife Union, 48, seemingly responded to the current chatter surrounding his daughter Zaya and Rivera's daughter Charlie's sexualities by each reposting the same previous video on Tuesday, in which the former NBA star addressed naysayers who were bashing his daughter at the time that news of her transition broke. The proud dad managed to find a silver lining within the negative commentary.
"All the people that have something to say about my kid, Boosie [Badazz], all the people who got something to say, J Boog, I thank you, because you're allowing the conversation to keep going forward," he said in the clip. "Because you know what, you might not have all the answers today. I don't have all the answers, but we're growing from all these conversations."
The social media user who originally posted the clip on his Instagram story, captioned the video, "THANK YOU D' this is what unconditional love looks like, this [is] how you show up for your lgbtq child. Zaya does not yet know how BLESSED she is to have two parents that love, appreciate, and accept && [are] not scared of putting in the work. @dwyanewade @gabunion."
Actor Kendrick Sampson of Issa Rae's HBO hit series Insecure, also weighed in on Wade's video in support of Zaya.
Sampson, 33, re-shared the same video clip of Wade on his Instagram story and the doting dad reposted a screenshot of Sampson's post on Tuesday.
In the actor's repost, he wrote, "THIS IS DOPE AF @DWYANEWADE 💯💯💯 I HAVE TO BE THIS PERSON IN MY FAMILY FIGHTING FOR SOME OF MY YOUNGER FAMILY MEMBERS AND I KNOW IT'S NOT EASY! I CAN ONLY IMAGINE IF THEY HAD A FATHER LIKE YOU."
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