• Joanne Spataro
• Ross Matthews and Me at Buffalo Wild Wings

Would Ross Matthews ever walk into a place that sells hot wings? Well, that’s exactly where I found the bubbly TV personality, who is usually found sparring with comedian Chelsea Handler on her late night talk show Chelsea Lately. This fixture on the awards show circuit for E! Entertainment television had big plans during DNC week: interview FLOTUS Michelle Obama, former speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi, and more-petite-than-you-ever-imagined MSNBC news anchor Andrea Mitchell.

I caught up with Ross outside of Buffalo Wild Wings at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, where we talked about Charlotte and his role in the LGBT community.

Creative Loafing: How do you like Charlotte?
Ross Matthews: I quite like Charlotte. I’ve been here before for a couple of segments for [Jay] Leno, and I’ve always had fun here. It’s great. I was in Tampa for the RNC last week — completely different vibes, one not necessarily better than the other. This is just wonderful here. I mean it really is fun, just so many like-minded people coming together for one cause. It’s fun to see.

What places do you like to eat around here?
I couldn’t even tell you. We’ve been working non-stop.

What do you consider is your role in the LGBT community?
The role is to be out, proud, loud and a positive role model. I think you do that by never apologizing, by saying, "Don’t tolerate me, celebrate me." I think that’s an important thing to do, and I think of course the fight is getting a lot easier as the years go by. Think of all the campaigns we’ve had. Think about Bush a few years ago trying to amend the constitution so gay marriage could never become legal and then only less than a decade later the president of the United States is supporting gay marriage on a personal level. That is a huge transition in a small amount of time and I think it is indicative of where the nation is going.