{"id":49213,"date":"2014-11-03T12:00:40","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=49213"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:29:34","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:29:34","slug":"tim-cook-i-consider-being-gay-among-the-greatest-gifts-god-has-given-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/11\/tim-cook-i-consider-being-gay-among-the-greatest-gifts-god-has-given-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Cook: ‘I Consider Being Gay among the Greatest Gifts God Has Given Me’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple CEO Tim Cook has written about his sexuality for the first time, in the hope that he can \u2018help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is.\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\"Apple<\/a>

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks at the WSJD Live conference in Laguna Beach, California. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson\/Reuters<\/p><\/div>\n

30 Oct 2014 – <\/em>Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, has officially come out as gay and described his sexuality as \u201camong the greatest gifts God has given me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cook, who had previously never denied being gay but neither had he publicly acknowledged his sexuality, wrote about being gay in an opinion article for Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me,\u201d the boss of the world\u2019s largest company said on Thursday. \u201cFor years, I\u2019ve been open with many people about my sexual orientation. Plenty of colleagues at Apple know I\u2019m gay, and it doesn\u2019t seem to make a difference in the way they treat me,\u201d he said. Of course, I\u2019ve had the good fortune to work at a company that loves creativity and innovation and knows it can only flourish when you embrace people\u2019s differences. Not everyone is so lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cook, 53, who became the boss of Apple in August 2011 shortly before founder Steve Jobs died after a long battle against pancreatic cancer, said: \u201cWhile I have never denied my sexuality, I haven\u2019t publicly acknowledged it either, until now. So let me be clear: I\u2019m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Out magazine listed him<\/a> on its 2013 \u201cpower list\u201d, while tech blog Valleywag<\/a> castigated the New York Times for erasing Cook<\/a> when it wrote in May that \u201cthere is not a single openly gay chief executive at the nation\u2019s 1,000 biggest companies.\u201d Until today, Cook had also never confirmed that he is a gay man, to the extent that a CNBC anchor caused a minor fracas in June when he described Cook<\/a> as \u201cfairly open
\nabout the fact that he\u2019s gay\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cook, who has worked at Apple since 1998, said he had not previously opened up about his sexuality in an effort to try and maintain a level of privacy while running one of the world\u2019s most scrutinised companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout my professional life, I\u2019ve tried to maintain a basic level of privacy. I come from humble roots, and I don\u2019t seek to draw attention to myself,\u201d he said. \u201cApple is already one of the most closely watched companies in the world, and I like keeping the focus on our products and the incredible things our customers achieve with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, I believe deeply in the words of Dr Martin Luther King, who said: \u201cLife\u2019s most persistent and urgent question is, \u2018What are you doing for others?\u2019 \u201d I often challenge myself with that question, and I\u2019ve come to realise that my desire for personal privacy has been holding me back from doing something more important. That\u2019s what has led me to today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cook said being gay had been \u201ctough and uncomfortable at times\u201d but also made him \u201cmore empathetic, which has led to a richer life\u201d and given him \u201cthe confidence to be myself, to follow my own path, and to rise above adversity and bigotry\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also given me the skin of a rhinoceros, which comes in handy when you\u2019re the CEO of Apple.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the essay is the first place Cook has publicly confirmed his sexuality, it\u2019s not the first time he\u2019s taken a stance against discrimination against LGBT people. In June, he tweeted<\/a> his support for the White House\u2019s decision to ban LGBT discrimination at federal contractors, calling it \u201ca matter of basic human dignity\u201d. And in February<\/a>, he congratulated the football coach of the university he went to for saying he would be fine with a gay player on the team.<\/p>\n

In the Bloomberg article, Cook said the world had changed considerably for gay people since he was a child, but more needs to be done to create a fair and more equal society. \u201cThere are laws on the books in a majority of states that allow employers to fire people based solely on their sexual orientation. There are many places where landlords can evict tenants for being gay, or where we can be barred from visiting sick partners and sharing in their legacies. Countless people, particularly kids, face fear and abuse every day because of their sexual orientation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cook said he does not consider himself a gay rights activist, but he realised how much he has benefited from the sacrifices of equal rights activists in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll admit that this wasn\u2019t an easy choice. Privacy remains important to me, and I\u2019d like to hold on to a small amount of it,\u201d he said. \u201cSo 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\u2019s worth the trade-off with my own privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other high-profile business figures who have discussed their homosexuality more openly in recent years include the former BP boss Lord Browne, who has now written a book about homosexuality within the business world.<\/p>\n

Suki Sandhu, chief executive of OUTstanding, a not-for-profit professional network for LGBT executives, said: \u201cThis is amazing news. There is no stronger diversity message to send than the CEO of the world\u2019s most valuable company saying it makes sense to be open and authentic about who you are in the workplace. Coming hot on the heels of the appointment of Christopher Bailey as the first openly gay CEO of a FTSE 100 company, it shows that attitudes are changing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the fact remains that Cook and Bailey are in a tiny minority. When conservative estimates put the percentage of UK adults who are lesbian,g ay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) at 6%, it seems crazy that so few business leaders are open about their sexuality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s Tim Cook isn\u2019t the only gay person in the IT village<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

30 Oct 2014 – Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, has officially come out as gay and described his sexuality as \u201camong the greatest gifts God has given me.\u201d He has written about his sexuality for the first time, in the hope that he can \u2018help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is.\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sexualities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}