14 DAY TRIAL // Coming out as gay these days really isn’t much of a novelty anymore, but it certainly raises some eyebrows when the person coming out is the CEO of the world’s most valuable company.
Writing an essay for Bloomberg Businessweek, southerner Tim Cook has openly admitted to being gay, in an attempt to make a difference in the way minorities get treated worldwide.
Had to be said
Cook has never made it a secret that he is gay. Do a little Googling and you’ll find countless stories that don’t just speculate it, but confirm it. Keeping to himself has allowed Cook to fend off any homophobia that would interfere with his job as the COO and later CEO of Apple. But he’s never been afraid to let everyone know this particular aspect of his life.
“For years, I’ve been open with many people about my sexual orientation,” Cook writes. “Plenty of colleagues at Apple know I’m gay, and it doesn’t seem to make a difference in the way they treat me. Of course, I’ve had the good fortune to work at a company that loves creativity and innovation and knows it can only flourish when you embrace people’s differences. Not everyone is so lucky.”
The reason for coming out isn’t personal. Or at least not entirely so. In his fight for equality, he believes that “If hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it’s worth the trade-off with my own privacy.”
Leaving no room for interpretation
Cook feels it’s important to state loud and clear that he is, in fact, gay. Just to be sure no one picks at the essay the wrong way.
“While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven’t publicly acknowledged it either, until now. So let me be clear: I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.”
The Apple CEO believes that being gay has made him more sensible to the things that matter most to people, such as love and respect. It has also given him a good idea of what minorities go through each and every day, and admits that it has been “tough and uncomfortable at times” for him as well.
At the other end of the spectrum, “it has given me the confidence to be myself, to follow my own path, and to rise above adversity and bigotry,” he adds.
The Apple boss concludes by saying that he firmly believes in the values that Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy have fought for, but that he doesn’t dare to put himself in the same league.
“All it does is allow me to [...] know that I’m doing my part, however small, to help others.”