A Quebecer who plays soccer in Nebraska must avoid talking about abortion with her teammates in the locker room so as not to create unnecessary tensions that could harm team spirit.
“A lot of my teammates are against abortion. They are very religious girls and, for them, it is against God. […] We really don’t have the same ideologies, so we try not to talk about it. We are teammates, we don’t want to have tension,” says Montrealer Florence Belzile, who will not have the right to vote on November 6, since she is not an American citizen.
The 21-year-old is in her third season with the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers and is now familiar with this Midwestern state, a true Republican stronghold.
If, on the University campus, mentalities are more “liberal”, she explains, as soon as she leaves, she understands that she is in the country of Donald Trump, since the streets are covered with posters of the Republican candidate.
Leave politics aside
And these values, anchored in the culture of the inhabitants of Nebraska, are reflected in several teammates native to this state, particularly during this period of the presidential campaign.
“There is the debate on abortion, but also, before each match, several players say their prayers and publish messages from Trump on their social networks,” she said. Recently, we went to a football team game and one of our players put on a sticker supporting Donald Trump,” adds the woman who should return to Quebec at the end of this school year.
The soccer player admits that she sometimes struggles to understand the arguments of certain pro-Trump teammates, but does not judge them.
“We try to avoid the subject as much as possible because, without saying that it creates conflicts, it leads to uncomfortable situations. We don’t understand each other.”
Expatriate in election
- Florence Belzile
- 21 ans
- Lincoln, Nebraska
- Student
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