"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

Pierce did not respond to messages seeking comment, but he told the Associated Press, "I think some of us, particularly myself, did not understand the implications of what it would do. We heard some criticism of it early on but not the level of what we're hearing today. Still, everybody has the right to privacy in these facilities."

My undergraduate college's 2018 MLK Day keynoter, explaining his vote for North Carolina's discriminatory, separate-and-not-even-pretend-equal 2016 law, HB2. In 2017 Pierce voted to replace HB2 with HB 142, which kept the statewide ban on local anti-discrimination ordinances in place until 2020.