12-Year-Old Swimmer Refuses To Change ‘Black Lives Matter’ Swimsuit After Getting a Ban

Leidy Gellona is a 12-year-old girl who was disqualified from a swim meet in Wisconsin for wearing a homemade Black Lives Matter swimsuit. Although she missed the race due to the ‘ban’, the decision was later reversed and the meet official let her participate in other races.

The girl’s mother has since said that Leidy is very interested in social justice, and the girl wanted to wear the message for the meet.

However, as she was preparing for her next event after the first race at Superior High School in Superior, she was told by an official that she couldn’t compete in that suit.
The girl was determined that she wasn’t going to take off the suit, and her mom supported her in the decision.

So, the mom went to talk to the official, but she was clearly upset.

In case y’all haven’t heard, 12 year-old Leidy Lyons was disqualified from a local meet for wearing this swimsuit. She stood strong in her belief that Black Lives Matter, and refused to change. Our branch members showed up to support her and ultimately had the ruling overturned! pic.twitter.com/buMHEuPVrB

— Duluth Branch NAACP (@duluthnaacp) February 10, 2022

Although Leidy did have another suit at hand to change, she decided not to.

“She came and told me that she was absolutely not taking the suit off and I said, ‘Whatever you want to do I support that,’. If you don’t want to I 100 percent support you, And she said, ‘Mom, I’m not taking it off.'” – the mom said.

The meet official said that the suit went against USA Swimming’s policy of no political language, but thankfully, the decision was revoked by the Duluth Area Family YMCA, which sponsored the event.

Thankfully, Leidy was finally allowed to compete, and you can check out the full story for yourself below:

Thousands of people sent their messages of support to the young girl, including NBA superstar LeBron James, who shared a story on Instagram in which he praised Leidy’s courageous stand.

Source: Upworthy

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