Get in touch…
Phone/text: 336-391-9528
Email: matt ‘at’ mattcomer ‘dot’ net
Substack: Matt Comer
Threads: @TheMattComer
Twitter: @TheMattComer
About Me…
Hi! My name is Matt. I was raised in Winston-Salem, N.C., but Charlotte has been my home since 2007. I love this city and I am proud to call it my adopted hometown.
I have nearly two decades of professional experience in keeping ideas, communities, and organizations moving and communicating. I love being able to help shape and share stories! I’ve worn many hats over my nearly 20-year career — blogger, reporter, newspaper editor, magazine designer, web designer, event planner, operations and logistics director, media spokesperson, and more.
I currently work as Director of Communications and Digital Engagement at St. Stephen United Methodist Church. I serve as a deacon at my home church, St. John’s Baptist, and I am longtime supporter of a variety of causes and organizations. Prior to my work at St. Stephen, I worked as Operations and Communications Director of Charlotte Pride, beginning my tenure in 2017 and departing in 2022. I served as editor of QNotes, the Charlotte-based LGBTQ newspaper of North Carolina from 2007-2015.
I have been active in local, state, and national LGBTQ and progressive educational work, advocacy, journalism, and commentary since my teens. I graduated from R.J. Reynolds High School in 2004, took some undergraduate courses at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and I am currently a student at BSK Theological Seminary (formerly, the Baptist Seminary of Kentucky).
In my free time, I enjoy traveling to the Blue Ridge Mountains, studying history, serving my faith community, and tending to my small and humble flower garden.
Read more about my background and experience below…
Writing and more…
I occasionally blog at my personal blog here, as well as at Substack. I began commentary writing at this website in 2014, took a hiatus from 2020-2025, and resurrected this as my once-again online home in January 2026. This website was preceded by InterstateQ.com, where my personal writing appeared from 2005-2016; originally launched when I was a college student at the height of the “blogosphere” era, InterstateQ documented a wide range of political commentary and personal thoughts, including reflections from my time as an activist with the Soulforce Equality Ride, Right to Serve Campaign, and Right to Marry Campaign. InterstateQ.com is now archived, though you may see here occasional reflections and reprinted content from time-to-time.
In addition to my previous work with QNotes, from October 2007 to August 2015, I have contributed to a variety of news and commentary publications. I first started blogging and doing opinion writing in 2005, and my first weekly column as a student, “Don’t Ask (I’m Telling),” was published in The Carolinian, UNCG’s campus newspaper. I later contributed to several other publications, including as a regular columnist for Creative Loafing Charlotte, and occasional past contributions to The Bilerico Project, Pam’s House Blend, Campus Progress/Generation Progress, LGBTQ Nation, The Advocate, CNN Headline News, The Raw Story, Baptist News Global, and others. I also contributed as a freelancer to Out Q News on Sirius/XM Radio, working as a regular stringer and as an on-the-ground reporter at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.
I have been interviewed by and my reporting work and thoughts on LGBTQ advocacy have been cited or profiled extensively by local, statewide and national news-media, including The New York Times, Dallas Morning News, The Associated Press, The Seattle Times, BBC World Service, CNN Headline News, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Post, The Huffington Post and CBS Radio News, along with a variety of local and regional outlets across North Carolina, including The Charlotte Observer and The Winston-Salem Journal.
I have also appeared as a special guest on WAMU’s “The Kojo Nnamdi Show,” WFAE’s “Charlotte Talks,” WUNC’s “State of Things,” WBT’s “Keith Larson Show” and others.
Published in September 2008, I penned an essay in CRISIS: 40 Stories Revealing the Personal, Social, and Religious Pain and Trauma of Growing Up Gay In America, edited by Mitchell Gold. The book was republished as Youth in Crisis in 2011. My essay tells my experience of growing up and coming out in a conservative, independent southern Baptist church and family.
Additionally, my activism work, news, and opinion writing have been cited by non-fiction authors from a variety of viewpoints, including citations in a number of academic journals and other publications.
Involved in the community…
I have been active in LGBTQ community organizing, advocacy and activism since my teens. My first foray into LGBTQ activism came at the age of 14, when I started a gay-straight alliance at my high school. My entry into community organizing and advocacy introduced me to a variety of other organizations I have supported and for which I have volunteered, including GLSEN Winston-Salem, the Women’s Health Center of Excellence of the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Alternative Resources of the Triad, Triad Equality Alliance, the Human Rights Campaign, the Triad Business & Professional Guild, EqualityNC, the Guilford Green Foundation, Campus Pride, MeckPAC, and others.
In March and April 2007, I joined 50 other youth activists in the Soulforce Equality Ride. I also worked as an organizer for the 2006 Right to Serve Campaign challenging the U.S. Armed Forces “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and the 2007 Right to Marry Campaign in New York state.
I was also active in advocacy efforts to change the anti-gay membership and leadership policies of the Boy Scouts of America, after being dismissed from the program as a teenager. I participated in protests and advocacy efforts with Scouting For All, as well as with the Coalitions for Inclusive Scouting. I am a co-founder of the Inclusive Scouting Network and was active with Scouts for Equality in the lead-up to BSA policy changes in the mid-2010s.
I joined the volunteer organizing committee of Charlotte Pride in 2008, where I served as a volunteer or board member through November 2017, when I took a part-time role as Communications Director. That role was later made full-time, and I ended my tenure at Charlotte Pride as Operations and Communications Director in December 2022. Related to this work, I’ve represented Charlotte Pride several times at annual international meetings of the International Association of Pride Organizers (InterPride) and I have also served the U.S. Association of Prides as a board member, Southern District representative, and communications chair, 2021-2025.