Stonewall Sports is just bursting with dedicated and wonderful staffers to help any interested participant find their footing while making new friends doing something healthy. During this interview QNotes is pleased to share with you some insight into one of those individuals. Bryce Moffett has been working and living in Charlotte since moving to the area from Kentucky in 2016.
Surrounded by a spring breeze and the sound of birds outside the large open windows of his home office, Moffett spoke with us from his Colonial style home in East Charlotte about his experiences working with Stonewall Sports, life in the Queen City and his love for shopping at Dillard’s Department Store.
L’Monique King: What brought you to Charlotte?
Bryce Moffett: I actually moved to North Carolina to take a job at BB&T, which eventually became Truist. I’ve since left Truist. I’m now at First Citizens Bank which is based in Raleigh.
LMK: What do you like about Charlotte?
BM: The weather is great! I have built a good community here and it reminds me a lot of the town I went to college in. It has a young energy and is always changing. I really like seeing that, the change.
LMK: Where did you go to school?
BM: I went to the University of Kentucky. I went twice for two degrees; one in business and one in accounting. I then went to UNC-Charlotte and got my MBA in 2023.
LMK: Let’s get a little more personal. Do you have any siblings?
BM: Yes, I have a younger sister. She teaches school back in Kentucky. I try to visit about once every two months. I enjoy spending time with her. She has a soft heart and is always looking for the best in people. I’m very practical, very solution driven and sometimes we clash a bit, <chuckling> but I’m myself with her and she’s accepting, though we’re not as involved in each other’s lives as we’d like to be.
LMK: Is there someone closer you share your life with? Are you partnered?
BM: <Very bluntly> No.
LMK: Would you like to have a partner?
BM: Maybe. I think that I have a lot of independence with my life currently and I would need to keep some of that independence if I were to enter a relationship. But I don’t want to be codependent on anyone – that doesn’t interest me at all.
LMK: What about offspring, do you have any children?
BM: People place their hopes and dreams on their children’s backs and that’s a hard burden to carry. They could be gay and not accepted. I’ve never wanted to do that to someone – pressure someone to live up to my ideal of my personal happiness. I also volunteer at Davidson College as a graduate advisor, so I guess that also scratches the parenting itch for me. Seeing them come out of high school and spending the next four years developing who they are as an adult and then leave to enter the world for the first time on their own is really rewarding for me.
LMK: What’s your connection to Stonewall Sports?
BM: I am the second president the Charlotte chapter has had. I’ve been involved in a leadership capacity since 2018. Essentially the role is like the queen of England – like I’m a ceremonial member of the board without voting power but am there to be the figurehead and to make sure everything is getting done for the organization. A lot of what I do is conflict management. If something occurs at a sporting event, I’m usually the independent party called upon to resolve any kind of conflict that may arise. But that doesn’t happen often. I’m also a sounding board for the board members and their ideas. Stonewall Sports is an organization that’s about building community through sports. It’s about connecting with people and making new friends. Sports like bowling offer people an opportunity to meet each other and make new friends.
LMK: Switching gears a bit, what makes you smile, no matter what?
BM: Oh man! <Thoughtful pause> I guess I smile whenever I get a random text from someone I haven’t spoken to in a while. [When that happens] it means people are thinking about you and that feels good.
LMK: What annoys you?
BM: What drives me crazy at work is misplaced commas. I review people’s writing all day long and I blame the U.S. Educational System for not teaching people how to write. You have to be able to communicate your thoughts and feelings. The other thing is people who don’t read books and don’t know what kinds of books they like to read. You’ve got to invest time in yourself and expand your worldview. Reading does that. When you don’t read, you miss an opportunity for quiet self-reflective time as well.
LMK: Would you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert?
BM: I’m an extrovert. When it comes to the weekend, I’ve generally planned everything . I’m not content sitting at home. I want to be traveling or experiencing adventures. I’m leaving tomorrow to go to India for a week. It’s a work trip but we’ll have some free time to explore and have fun.
LMK: As a travel enthusiast, what are your top three travel destinations?
BM: Lyon, France, Amsterdam and New Orleans. I take a trip to New Orleans every year.
LMK: Let’s talk a little bit about home. Do you have any concerns about the current U.S. administration?
BM: Well, I renewed my passport the day after the election, but I have no extreme concerns. I’m not planning on evacuating. But I do think that looking at what’s going on across America with the hostilities towards outside groups, people who are not white and Christian has echoes of a not-so-distant past; like World War II when you had powerful countries invading small countries, other countries standing by watching it happen and the situation not being deescalated. The nationalism, identity politics and classism [we’re seeing and experiencing] are reminiscent of something from a Nazi playbook.
LMK: We’re heard you’re a history buff. How do you feel about the current government initiatives and directives erasing so much of American history?
BM: I am and we are living in the shadow of the decisions of people who came before us – usually white men. Right out of the Nazi playbook where they only want us to have access to what they want us to know. When you think about – it’s like how the Chinese government has censored internet searches for things that don’t make them look good. Things like the Tiananmen Square incident. When we censor Black writers or take a sky-high view of history and don’t look at the individuals and things that actually happened because it makes you uncomfortable instead of challenging yourself to find out how those views from the past influence what’s going on today, that’s dangerous. When we erase the stories of people who look like us, believe the things we believe or were affected by things we might be going through now, it divorces us from humanity.
LMK: Considering all the erasure we’re seeing right now, where do you think we’re headed, as a nation?
BM: Three weeks ago, I would have said we’re headed for a breaking point. Today I think that the government layoffs, the stock market and the implications that will directly hit his voters are breaking down because they too are being impacted by laws and people they thought would protect them.
LMK: When you’re not reading, traveling or thinking about our current sad state of affairs, what do you do for fun?
BM: I’m usually hanging out with friends or shopping at Dillard’s. Love Dillard’s. My friends tease me because I’m there so often the employees know who I am.
LMK: Fast forwarding, where is Bryce 20 years from now?
GM: <Laughter> Where is Bryce tomorrow? I don’t right now. I hate to make long term plans because as soon as you do, something gets thrown your way. It’s best not to have expectations because you’ll live for the future and not in the present.
LMK: Before we let you go, would you offer a word of advice to the LGBTQ youth in our community?BM: Find people that make you happy, not people you are trying to impress.