Tim Cook leads 8,000 Apple employees in Gay Pride Parade

By

Apple is a strong supporter of the LGBT community.
Apple waving the flag for LGBT rights. Literally.
Photo: Tim Cook/Twitter

Apple was out in force yesterday as Tim Cook and 8,000 Apple employees participated in Sunday’s 43rd Annual Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco, following last week’s historic Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage across the U.S.

Apple employees carried LGBT rainbow flags as they took to the streets — considerably outnumbering the hundreds of employees from other tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Uber, and others.

“Great to celebrate with over 8,000 Apple employees, friends and families. Happy Pride everyone!” Tim Cook tweeted, adding the hashtag #applepride.

Other prominent Apple employees who marched in the parade included Phil Schiller and Apple’s VP of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives Lisa P. Jackson.

Apple has been a long-time supporter of gay rights, although this has stepped up in recent years under the leadership of Cook, who remains the world’s only openly-gay Fortune 500 CEO.

Cook has previously penned opinion pieces for The Wall Street Journal urging Congress to approve a bill designed to “protect workers against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” and even has an anti-discrimination bill named after himself.

Last week it was announced that Apple’s ResearchKit will power the world’s largest medical research project into the health needs of the LGBT population.

 

Deals of the Day

  • Charles Putnam,

    I wonder if Apple penalizes employees that don’t agree with this or decline to participate.

    • ProgressiveBroad

      LMFAO! I don’t think you need to worry about a conspiracy theory with this group, they are all quite educated and do not need to make up their heartfelt belief concerning marriage equality.

      • rethciR

        So anyone that disagrees with this is a conspiracy theorist and uneducated?

      • Greg_the_Rugger

        At the very least, uninformed. That piece of paper grants a list of benefits to couples that domestic partnerships, medical authorizations, and other legal instruments have fail to guarantee.

        But don’t you worry. They will pay the penalty tax like all other couples and divorce court will keep the money flowing.

    • Greg_the_Rugger

      It looks like you will be living in a lonely frustrated world for the forseeble future.

    • NSDelToro

      LOL. I wouldn’t worry about it. Apple is pretty diverse and open minded.

  • AAPL.To.Break.$130.Soon>:-)

    Could this be the reason Apple continues to lose value on Wall Street? The big investors don’t want to support a company filled with gay employees or they don’t like Tim Cook for being openly gay? I dunno. That’s a gay army right there.

    • Paul Lloyd Johnson

      You forgot the /s

    • NSDelToro

      Not everything is about ROI. Tim Cook has said it multiple times..

  • Exconious Jackson

    One could conclude that employees that don’t agree with this position will be held back…denied future advancements,etc…all for being straight.!

    • exogeologist

      How the hell does this flow logically?!

      Answer: it doesn’t. At all.

  • Chris Kinnard

    Yes and it was obnoxious. 8,000 employees, zero floats. 20 minutes of people walking and no entertainment. Self-serving, much?

    • exogeologist

      It held up the entire rest of the parade by almost 2 hours. Pretty irritating. Though a very cool statement.