Apple CEO Tim Cook Comes Out: ‘Being Gay Is Among The Greatest Gifts’

Apple CEO Tim Cook, the most powerful chief executive in the corporate world, has publicly acknowledged he is gay for the first time.

He is arguably among the most powerful people on the planet. Head of the world’s richest and most respected company, Tim Cook leads a company with $183 billion in revenue, and assets — including a tremendous amount of cash — of $232 billion. Last year it beat Coca-Cola, becoming the world’s most valuable brand. And that’s just a smidgeon of the accolades that could be bestowed on Apple, Inc.

So it’s not insignificant that Cook today published an op-ed in Bloomberg News that focuses on his sexuality.

“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.”

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.

Being gay has given me a deeper understanding of what it means to be in the minority and provided a window into the challenges that people in other minority groups deal with every day. It’s made me more empathetic, which has led to a richer life. It’s been tough and uncomfortable at times, but it has given me the confidence to be myself, to follow my own path, and to rise above adversity and bigotry. It’s also given me the skin of a rhinoceros, which comes in handy when you’re the CEO of Apple.

Why tell anyone, much less the entire world?

Cook writes that privacy is very important to him, but, rightly, he says, “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.”

UPDATES: 

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Image by Andy Ihnatko via Flickr
Hat tip: Salon