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.
Walked with the Apple team for Gay Pride in SF. Great energy pic.twitter.com/IGRSVopb0H
— Karen Mohr (@kxmohr) June 29, 2015
Apple at sf gay pride parade pic.twitter.com/YoSnAZypKg
— dan tynan (@tynanwrites) June 28, 2015
All those white tee shirts? Apple employees. @SFPride #SFPride pic.twitter.com/lhKc9mBD7Z — ¡Gabe Ortíz! (@TUSK81) June 28, 2015
In San Fran watching gay pride parade & Apple shows up with btwn 5&10,000 employees all wearing matching rainbow… pic.twitter.com/cZdy1i0l6B — Dylan Neal (@DylanNealStudio) June 28, 2015
Can’t wash my hand now @tim_cook liked our shirts! #applepride #LoveCantWait #loveislove pic.twitter.com/h9fIxqWacD
— Selina Chang (@selina_chang) June 28, 2015
It really is an Infinite Loop. #ApplePride #SFPride pic.twitter.com/1aWIfV3KGC
— Matthew Herbst (@MattHerbst_) June 28, 2015
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
13 responses to “Tim Cook leads 8,000 Apple employees in Gay Pride Parade”
I wonder if Apple penalizes employees that don’t agree with this or decline to participate.
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.
So anyone that disagrees with this is a conspiracy theorist and uneducated?
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.
It looks like you will be living in a lonely frustrated world for the forseeble future.
LOL. I wouldn’t worry about it. Apple is pretty diverse and open minded.
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.
You forgot the /s
Not everything is about ROI. Tim Cook has said it multiple times..
One could conclude that employees that don’t agree with this position will be held back…denied future advancements,etc…all for being straight.!
How the hell does this flow logically?!
Answer: it doesn’t. At all.
Yes and it was obnoxious. 8,000 employees, zero floats. 20 minutes of people walking and no entertainment. Self-serving, much?
It held up the entire rest of the parade by almost 2 hours. Pretty irritating. Though a very cool statement.