Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook on Thursday became the most
prominent American corporate leader to come out as gay, saying he was trading
his closely guarded privacy for the chance to help move civil rights forward.
The 53-year-old Alabama native and self-described "son
of the South", who has spoken out against discrimination of lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, declared his sexual orientation in a
magazine editorial, confirming a fact widely known in the close-knit Silicon
Valley tech community but rarely discussed.
Cook's announcement
comes as gay marriage is becoming widespread, but the nation remains divided
over gay rights. Same-sex marriage is legal in thirty-two U.S. states and in
polls a majority support same-sex marriage, with a clear generational divide
between younger Americans who are more likely to support it and older ones who
are less likely.
"I'm proud to be
gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me,"
Cook said in an article he wrote in Bloomberg Businessweek.
He invoked civil
rights luminaries Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King in his long essay.
"I don’t pretend
that writing this puts me in their league. All it does is allow me to look at
those pictures and know that I’m doing my part, however small, to help others.
We pave the sunlit path toward justice together, brick by brick. This is my
brick."
The fact the chief
executive of the most valuable U.S. publicly traded company felt he could
disclose his sexual preference in such a public way, and with the backing of
his company's chairman, shows how times have changed.
Former BP (BP.L)
Chief Executive Lord Browne, who kept his sexual orientation secret for
decades, was forced to come out after a boyfriend made it public in 2007. He
later resigned.
"By deciding to
speak publicly about his sexuality, Tim Cook has become a role model, and will
speed up changes in the corporate world," Browne said in an email to
Reuters on Thursday.
Cook, who cuts an
easy-going figure at Apple's product launches, is an intensely private person.
On Thursday, he wrote that it was this desire to keep his personal life private
that had held him back until now.
"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,"
he wrote.
Even in the United
States, it's a tough decision for a public figure to be open about being gay,
civil rights advocates say. More than half of LGBT workers in the country are
not open about their orientation, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
While never
commenting on his sexual orientation, Cook has frequently spoken out against
discrimination of the LGBT community, most recently when he journeyed back to
his home state, which bans gay marriage, where he was inducted into the Alabama
Academy of Honor.
At an award ceremony,
Cook criticized his state's lack of progress on rights for gay people, as well
as minorities. Local news reports of his comments drew hundreds of negative
comments, many saying Cook had betrayed his roots.
"What a slap in
the face to the Alabama Academy of Honor by such an ungracious recipient,"
GE123 wrote in comments to a website report by the Alabama Media Group.
"Common decency should have prevailed, but instead he uses this occasion
to denigrate Alabamians and further an immoral agenda."
EFFECT ON BUSINESS
It remains to be seen
whether Cook's disclosure will affect the company's business in conservative
markets such as Russia, Iran and parts of Africa. Apple now gets more than half
of its revenue from abroad, with China its second largest market.
"As the first CEO
of a Fortune 500 company to reveal he is gay, Tim helps make the business world
a bit less homophobic," Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of gay
rights organization DignityUSA told Reuters in an email.
"I'm sure this will
make it easier for some others in similar positions to consider coming
out."
People on Twitter and
Silicon Valley luminaries alike extended their support. Facebook (FB.O)
CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Cook "a courageous leader".
Others were more
circumspect. Jonathan Lovitz, a spokesman for StartOut, an advocacy group for
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender entrepreneurs, told Reuters that several
prominent gay and lesbian technology professionals had reached out to him,
asking how to react. His advice: celebrate, then get back to work.
Cook is at least the
third CEO of a publicly listed U.S. company to announce he is gay, following C1
Financial Inc's (BNK.N)
Trevor Burgess and IGI Laboratories Inc's (IG.A)
Jason Grenfell-Gardner.
Apple Chairman Art
Levinson said Cook's announcement was "courageous."
"On behalf of the
board and our entire company, we are incredibly proud to have Tim leading
Apple."
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