Actress Gabrielle Union took Florida news station officials to task on Monday (12Mar18) after she was simply referred to as sports ace Dwyane Wade’s “wife”.
The Bring It On star and Wade hit headlines for donating $200,000 to help students in the Miami Heat basketball legend’s native Chicago, Illinois travel to Washington, D.C. later this month (Mar18) to take part in the March for Our Lives rally for stricter gun legislation.
Reporters at local Miami broadcaster WSVN 7 News picked up the story and sent out a link to their coverage via Twitter, posting, “@DwyaneWade, wife donates $200,000 to student-ran gun control rally (sic)”.
Union spotted the tweet and criticised station bosses for the sexist post, which she shared on her social media page and captioned, “When they let you know what they think of you. I have a name.”
Her husband also spoke out against the slight, writing, “It’s Gabrielle Union-Wade to be exact,” as fans called out WSVN 7 News officials for the controversy.
Addressing the backlash online, a representative for the station reveals they have reached out to Union to say sorry, and have sent out an updated Twitter link with her full name on display.
“You’re absolutely right,” the rep responded in a tweet to one critic. “We have apologized, and will have a word with our writer.”
In another post, the WSVN official explained why they were leaving the original tweet intact, stating, “We cannot edit a tweet; however, her name is in the headline of our article and we have re-written a tweet that includes her name. We are not deleting the previous one, since we are owning up to our mistake.”
While the Twitter controversy appears to have overshadowed Union and Wade’s charitable donation, they are not the only stars to help students involved in the March for Our Lives event – George and Amal Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, and Steven Spielberg and his actress wife Kate Capshaw have all donated $500,000 to help cover the costs of the Washington D.C. demonstration. The protest is being organised by student survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida last month (Feb18), when 17 people were shot dead by a disgruntled student.
