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Tim Cook Speaks Up

From http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-30/tim-cook-im-proud-to-be-gay
replicatorblog | 2014-10-30 | 3086

Comments:

darrellsilver

2014-10-30
Why do you think he chose to come out now?

broodbucket

2014-10-30
Being in such a progressive community (i.e. young nerdy people), it's easy to forget that this is an enormous deal for some people. A friend of mine recently came out as transgender and the general response was "oh, cool, good for you". It's hard to fathom what it's like for people who aren't in such a supportive environment.

There are undoubtedly many people who will no longer purchase Apple products because of this, and I don't know society can fix this with anything but time.

ulfw

2014-10-30
Kudos to Tim!

Mahn

2014-10-30
I wish we lived in a society where people weren't pressured into "publically acknowledge" their sexual orientation just because it's different than the norm. You don't see heterosexual CEOs publically acknowledging they are banging their wife, why should it be different for other sexual orientations? Just let everyone be.

s_q_b

2014-10-30
While everyone already knew, the act of public announcement is one of great meaning and catharsis. Coming out is an important event for a gay person, and for a prominent person such as Tim Cook, for our society as well. As an ally, congratulations for having the courage to be who you are.

redguava

2014-10-30
This is great. Well done!

gchokov

2014-10-30
$AAPL down 1% pre-market :)

danatkinson

2014-10-30
Way to go, Tim! It's a shame that he had to 'come out', but I hope that being the CEO of one of the world's biggest companies will help the LGBT cause.

vayarajesh

2014-10-30
Never expected that! but still lot of respect for him.. it takes lot of guts to speak up being the CEO of the worlds biggest company!..

danieldelouya

2014-10-30
Good for him. Must be a relief.

colinramsay

2014-10-30
Strangely enough I'd see pictures of him at some gay pride thing and it never even occurred to me he might be gay. I think, more accurately, it didn't trigger anything in my brain that thought it mattered either way. Obviously this is the way it should be!

It seems like Tim Cook isn't under any pressure to publicly announce this, so it seems he's doing it as a way of leveraging his position to help others who are experiencing adversity. Some will say this is a stunt for Apple, and no doubt it does draw attention to Apple in a way, but I think you'd have to be pretty cynical to say that this is anything more nefarious than an admirable gesture.

Jedd

2014-10-30
I wonder how carefully crafted this line was:

  ... I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.
It seems a particularly odd thing to slip in, on so many levels.

paulojreis

2014-10-30
"(...) and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me". I can only imagine the reactions if the same was said by a heterosexual person, about heterosexual orientation... :)

ngcazz

2014-10-30
Wasn't this public knowledge?

kelvin0

2014-10-30
I guess Tim Cook and Brendan Eich don't see eye to eye on some issues.

Gigablah

2014-10-30
I'd like a world where announcements like this are considered utterly mundane.

wozniacki

2014-10-30
One has to wonder how - in this world filled with anonymity enabling services like Tor or even Pastebin - it is still possible to hide a secret, out in the open.

This is old news. Felix Salmon spelled it out in no uncertain terms when Mr.Cook was first named CEO, in 2011. [1]

The best place to hide something - not that Mr.Cook himself wanted his sexuality hidden; he merely did not want it to grab all the attention, away from Apple - is still in plain sight.[2]

This also begs the question, if enough vested interests or powerful people want something not to be talked about, is the fact still worthy of its truth value?

This applies to the trivial case at hand - of Mr. Cook's sexuality - as it does to the countless secrets of great gravity that were largely ignored - concerning at least a dozen nations not including the U.S. - that Wikileaks exposed.

[1] Don’t ignore Tim Cook’s sexuality

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/08/25/dont-ignore...

[2] The Purloined Letter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Purloined_Letter#Plot_summa...

kshatrea

2014-10-30
This made me well up inside. Being from a country that considers homosexuality to be illegal (India) and having a close friend who left that country as well as his religion (Islam) solely due to being gay, I applaud this man's spirit. It is not only the government that must accept equality of different ways, but so must society. Religion, culture and political climates are no reason to deny fundamental human freedoms - the right to have consensual sex with the people of your choice being one of them. Amazing that the one thing that we hold up as a pinnacle of political theory - democracy - is the one that keeps many minorities from exercising their rights. I am sure, for example, that a referendum on Article 377 would fail in most small Indian towns. Someone correct me if I am wrong. I hope that prominent Indians take this up as well (there are at least a couple of Bollywood directors who are rumoured to be gay as well as at least one business tycoon) and come out of the closet.

_pmf_

2014-10-30
Is it OK to be proud to be a gay man?

Is it OK to be proud to be a gay white man?

If you answer one question with yes and one with no, there might be a problem.

wuschel

2014-10-30
The "skin of a rhinoceros" - I liked that the most, as it reflects the development one makes when being part of a minority, no matter if it is sexual, financial ethnical or political nature.

rrobbins04

2014-10-30
uh..

praptak

2014-10-30
I found this one very striking: "Still, there are laws on the books in a majority of states that allow employers to fire people based solely on their sexual orientation."

Could anyone provide details? I wonder whether it is an explicit "Being gay is grounds for firing" or rather just plain lack of protection from firing for being gay?

venomsnake

2014-10-30
That's weird ... I though he had come out. I remember reading in Nytimes and Reuters why it was a big deal that Apple will have openly gay CEO a couple of years ago.

Anyway good for him.

bobcostas55

2014-10-30
>I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.

Americans are so weird.

tempodox

2014-10-30
Props for speaking up like this. My sister is gay and I know what she's been going through. I still hold out hope that mankind will see the day where things like that won't matter any more.

zoba

2014-10-30
Congrats to Tim! I've been waiting for this for a while. I've wondered though if he will have any problems traveling to foreign countries now. I don't know how much he travels, but, Russia has some bad anti-gay propaganda laws so there's at least one semi-important country to avoid.

general_failure

2014-10-30
While this is already known, this does show us the world is not black and white. Tricky the whole thing.

Mozilla as a company fights for privacy and creates a lot of free software for the general good. But people couldn't stand it's CEO being anti-gay. Now we have the most dangerous (imo) company of all time whose CEO is gay.

Ah, good times.

scrumper

2014-10-30
This is good, well done Tim Cook. A good event for gay people everywhere, like any other prominent figure coming out publicly.

"It’s also given me the skin of a rhinoceros"

And doubly well done for rejecting the skincare regime stereotypically associated with his sexual orientation.

andrewthornton

2014-10-30
What kind of chair is he sitting on in the first image?

rouma7

2014-10-30
one of the many things i appreciate the most about this essay is his sense of responsibility. its easy to see the leader of a large organization as an extraordinarily powerful individual, but he notes the seeming smallness of this announcement. he doesn't aim to change the world, but simply do his part. the last paragraph is so poignant because we all witness injustices and often act as bystanders. this is not a new phenomenon, but its important to remember to look at ourselves first and what we're each doing in our everyday lives

antirez

2014-10-30
Well played, this surely can help because even many of the homophobic idiots recognize in Tim Cook a role model, and can start questioning their ideas about diversity.

DonHopkins

2014-10-30
I hope he brings back the old Apple logo: http://cdn3.pcadvisor.co.uk/cmsdata/features/3343143/Apple_l...

lukeqsee

2014-10-30
What struck me about this piece is how effectively and with such clarity it was crafted: I could hear Tim saying every single one of these words in my head. To make the written word as convincing and powerful as the well-crafted spoken word is truly genius.

ForrestN

2014-10-30
I am incredibly grateful to Cook for this, not least because of how it will affect young gay people.

When I was a child, I felt generally good about myself. I was reasonably smart, well-spoken, curious, and so on, and I wanted to do something important with my life. Some nagging part of me suspected I was gay from very early on, but I resisted it intensely. I wasn't really afraid of being mistreated, although I probably should have been. People were already calling me names so I wasn't worried about that. More important for me was my sense that being gay meant being marginal.

There hasn't been a gay President, and at least when I was a child there weren't many gay people visible to me at all. The image of gay people presented to me were not powerful, focused on frivolous things, and consumed by attitude and lifestyle. If I wanted to do something important, I couldn't possibly be gay. It just didn't fit.

Knowing that the CEO of not only the most powerful company, but also the most admirable company, is gay would have helped me enormously. I always wanted apple products even before I could afford them, and this would have meant a clearly visible path forward. I can't imagine how happy this must be making some confused young people, given how happy it's making me right now.

dsjoerg

2014-10-30
The shocking news here is that Tim Cook is religious.

sidcool

2014-10-30
Greatness is not a slave to sexual orientation.

scragg

2014-10-30
I am a white male married to a black female with 2 mixed kids living in Texas. While we haven't experienced much bigotry our way, it has happened. The first time I was filled with disbelief and shortly after rage while my wife (then gf) cried.

Our lives would be different if we were born a generation ago. Thank you MLK and Tim Cook.

cryowaffle

2014-10-30
Good on him, nice work Tim.

mkr-hn

2014-10-30
Someone isn't out until they out themselves. Until then, it's gossip and speculation from second-hand (or worse) sources.

I'm glad the culture around him reached the point where he felt comfortable and safe being out. Hopefully this will be a kick in the pants to the culture around me. It's hard to date when most people are in the closet.

greenpinguin

2014-10-30
Go Tim!

webXL

2014-10-30
Good for him. At first my reaction was "meh", but I think this is a net win for gays and Apple. Homophobes probably weren't buying many Apple products to begin with, and potential/reasonable homophobes now see another successful leader who just so happens to be gay. The message to those people is pretty clear: better not mistreat people because of their sexual preference; not only will you look like an ass, but you run the risk of pissing off the person who might be signing your paycheck one day. Not to mention designing some cool piece of tech that you brag about owning.

MrZongle2

2014-10-30
This is going to sound callous, but my reaction is: big deal.

And this should be everybody's reaction, IMO. I'll explain momentarily.

Being gay isn't easy if you aren't in a supportive environment. Hell, being gay will get you killed in some cultures and countries. In some places you'll merely be shunned and disowned by your family and friends. As a straight guy, I know this. How?

Because for the last 20 years or so, I've heard this again and again. The LGBT movement is nothing if not vocal and persistent, even to the point of being heavy-handed. I'm not saying I'm unsympathetic, I'm just saying that if there's a target demographic for "awareness", I haven't classified to be in that group for years.

So when Tim Cook officially announces his sexuality, I'm well aware that this isn't something as casually mentioned as being left-handed, having AB- blood type or a peanut allergy, preferring cats over dogs, or liking the color yellow. I'm also aware that for LGBT folks who haven't come out, seeing a successful person do so can be encouraging and inspiring.

Now regarding my "big deal" reaction...

While civilization will never be without bigots of one form or another, if we as a society are ever going to get past racial/gender/sexual issues, then disclosures like Cook's need to be unremarkable. Comparing America's reaction to Billy Crystal simply playing a gay man on "Soap" in the 80s to today, it seems like we've come a long way in a relatively short time compared to other social movements.

By the same token, an incident earlier this year demonstrated that the tech industry is probably the one of most gay-friendly business sectors to be in. Ironically, Brendan Eich was attacked, ostracized and shunned for his beliefs because they weren't gay-friendly. As an outsider, it does not appear that being a gay CEO in the California high-tech industry is as much of a burden as, say, a restaurant owner in Istanbul.

Finally, Tim Cook is worth upwards of $400 million. Like all wealthy individuals, he is generally insulated from contact with the rest of us simply because of his lifestyle: he doesn't take the bus, doesn't live in an apartment or typical suburban neighborhood, and certainly doesn't work in a cubicle. He likely won't encounter hate unless he tries to personally negotiate the opening of an Apple store in Moscow or Tehran. He's not a monster because he's rich (as far as I know he might be a really nice guy), but he's hardly an "everyman". For what it's worth, I had a similar reaction when many people were showering Mark Zuckerberg with praise for learning Chinese: hell, if I was that rich, I'd have time (and money) to learn Chinese from the best tutors.

In short, anyone announcing that they're gay should garner a "so what?" reaction because as a society we should be moving towards a person's actions being more important than their appearance, beliefs, or sexual orientation. And a multimillionaire making such an announcement today should elicit yawns because he is not representative of a typical person.

Edit: Not surprised by the downvote without explanation. Congratulations, sir or ma'am: you're part of the problem.

davesque

2014-10-30
Excellent news. For someone who has often been described as very private and opaque, I feel like I understand him a lot better now. Not to mention the positive social impact this will probably have.

leejoramo

2014-10-30
> When I arrive in my office each morning, I’m greeted by framed photos of Dr. King and Robert F. Kennedy.

Personally, I was struck as much or more by this statement. This certainly does not follow the standard political & business script that we are force feed in the USA. I look forward to hearing more from Cook speaking to social issues.

Bud

2014-10-30
In case you think this is no big deal, here's the updated list of Fortune 500 CEOs who are openly gay:

Tim Cook

unknownBits

2014-10-30
I am hetero, and I always asked myself: why all that fuzz about people being gay or anything else. I don't need to be proud to be gay or hetero or whatever, I just don't get it.. I have gay friends and never had anything against people with other sexuality, but I truly hate the Gay Pride in our country. I think it is pathetic to be proud of your sexual orientation and feeling a need to show that off.

This will definitely cost me some points, I know, not being gay and not promoting them is just dreadful.

avinassh

2014-10-30
Excellent news. I am from India where being gay is a crime in this country. Leaders of this country believe that being gay is a disease and it can be 'cured'[0]. According to Indian Penal Code 377[1], if you are gay you can be imprisoned for life. I had a friend and two years ago he committed suicide because he was gay. In India it's not easy to be gay. Parents and societal pressures can make anyones life living hell. His parents made his life horrible, as if he had committed some crime and they never accepted him. Everyone around him were mocking. After his suicide also, his parents behave as if it was good riddance for them and they don't miss him at all. And rather they are happy because now they don't have to answer society.

Just today morning I read a news[2] that a software engineer working in Infosys was booked for Sec 377 and put in jail. In June 2014, seven people were booked under Section 377 by the Bangalore Police [3]. So far 200 people have been prosecuted under this law [4].

That's the reason I don't see any famous Indian, those who work in movies or HNI, coming out and accepting they are gay. I really hope people in other countries also encourage actions of Tim Cook so that people have freedom to express their wishes and sexuality.

[0] - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/05/india-health-minist...

[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_377_of_the_Indian_Penal...

[2] - http://www.bangaloremirror.com/bangalore/cover-story/Sec-377...

[3] - http://www.bangaloremirror.com/bangalore/cover-story/Six-mon...

[4] - http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/imgs1.aspx?filename=41070

tomasien

2014-10-30
Warning: for the sake of your faith in HN and in humanity, do not read this thread, especially not from the bottom up. I did - big mistake, day ruined.

steven2012

2014-10-30
This was pretty well known ever since Tim Cook took reins as CEO. I think Felix Salmon "outed" him at the time, although I don't think Tim Cook ever hid it, or was ashamed in any respect. He, however, never addressed it publicly until now.

It's great that he has gone on record to officially address this. I'm curious though if there will be any repercussions from much less tolerant countries around the world. Hopefully not, and hopefully this opens up a new era of acceptance, although some countries that outlaw homosexuality might do stupid things. Thank goodness they are small and insignificant for the most part, although the reaction from countries like China and Indonesia worry me.

sarciszewski

2014-10-30
This thread is growing faster than I can read it. Yeah, Tim Cook coming out as gay is a positive thing, but it's not particularly novel or revolutionary.

If I were a young closeted gay person and someone said, "Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, just came out as gay," I wouldn't jump for joy for the future of gay people in technology. I'd instead make damn sure I didn't carry any Apple products in public for fear of some stranger connecting the dots and bullying me. But, hell, I grew up in a very oppressive town. (I also don't own any Apple products.)

What matters more is that Tim Cook is not the only one to speak up about this. I'd like to hear more CEOs come out without fear.

brudgers

2014-10-30
Still, there are laws on the books in a majority of states that allow employers to fire people based solely on their sexual orientation.

That includes Alabama where Tim Cook was born and attended university.

stevewilhelm

2014-10-30
Apple will go to great lengths to steal Microsoft's thunder.

I jest. This is a momentous announcement. But, I look forward to the day when being a gay CEO (politician, sports figure, etc.) is not newsworthy.

eyeareque

2014-10-30
It's heart warming to see the world become a better place. I'm glad Tim did this; While it is a small article, it will be remembered and it will change some people's live. Just as others have done before him, and will after him, it will lead us to a more accepting culture that we need to continue to striving to be.

Throwaway1224

2014-10-30
I'm prepared to get negative points for this, but who really cares if he is gay or straight?

notastartup

2014-10-30
I had a boss who was gay. Actually lot of gay people in that company. It was actually the best company I had ever worked for.

EdSharkey

2014-10-30
Who cares about Tim Cook's personal life and preferences? Answer: no one should care.

Tim Cook is a exceedingly boring man talking about the most boring/banal/useless topic there is: sex preferences. Get out of my face identity pols!

rudeboy347

2014-10-30
Big up to Tim Cook for making this move. So many people struggle with issues of identity and live with or in fear of discrimination. Equal rights and justice for all.

emcrazyone

2014-10-30
I simply don't get why he has to mix this article along with Apple's view of "The company I am so fortunate to lead has long advocated for human rights and equality for all. We’ve taken a strong stand in support of a workplace equality bill before Congress, just as we stood for marriage equality in our home state of California."

And in general, I think it's inappropriate to mix personal views with business matters. No body fucking cares if your gay or what color you are. If they do, then they are not people I would want to associate to begin with. What we do care about, are your products the company produces, support, what you're doing to fix bugs, etc...

Stop bringing personal BS to the business tables. Cook is way out of line for using his position at Apple (iPhone6 in the background) as a stage to push some personal gay message about himself.

return0

2014-10-30
This shouldn't be even news. Some guy says he's gay? Big whoop, it's 2014 guys.

Wintamute

2014-10-30
"I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me."

I'm 100% behind this, it's a great article with a great motive but this struck me as a curious note. What do you think he's getting at?

Istof

2014-10-30
Who cares, make an iImplant for the Apple fans

socceroos

2014-10-30
I'm not sure why this is on Hacker News? I didn't think this was the place for these types of articles. Perhaps I'm wrong in that assumption, but I'm unsure how HN differs from Reddit if this is the case.

deepuj

2014-10-30
Had he come out earlier, would he still have become CEO?

jjoe

2014-10-30
Is this submission supposed to remain on the front page of HN? I was confident the mods would have killed it very early on.

kphild

2014-10-30
It is so extremely sad that society is so evil that this makes a big news.

chenster

2014-10-30
Did Steve Jobs know about it?

gioioso

2014-10-30
I'm happy for not being gay.

Of course, this is not politically correct (because only gays are allowed to make such a statement).

Did you note anything?

sgt

2014-10-30
I mostly agree with the sentiment that this is hardly news-worthy. But I am sure it does a lot to the self confidence of this minority group (particularly children, as Cook pointed out), and that can only be a good thing.

Ad_Nauseam

2014-10-30
Practically everybody knew that Tim Cook is gay, that's why they said that Apple users are faggot and only faggot use Apple products.

igay_timcook

2014-10-30
Strange, all this debate about homosexuality. I wonder what the conversation would be like if the truth was known about it...

Epigenetics is the science of how our genes express themselves. They can be altered by many factors. Environmental, even certain strains of bacteria.

So being gay is actually not the intent of genetics, but an error in the expression on the sexual orientation gene. This will become very public and irrifutable in the next decade.

There will literally be a pill that will turn a gay person straight. Where will the debate lead then? It doesn't really matter. Within two generations, there will no longer be gay individuals (from erring epigenetics) in first world countries.

There is a second means of being gay. Neurol pathways are formed which redirect certain thoughts and impulses in a different way. These are strictly experience based anomalies, usually caused by trama or desperation/rationalization. These comprise only a very minor number of the homosexual population.

Does this change your opinion on anything?

barking

2014-10-30
"I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me."

I don't like that statement.

Replace gay with one of white, male or straight and see how it sounds.

_navaneethan

2014-10-30
This is the point I admire him irrespective of his sexuality:

So 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.

equoid

2014-10-30
I don't think it is an original observation but Steve Jobs chose a very capable and worthy successor. Tim Cook gets more impressive each time you hear anything about him.
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