Gossip rag Valleywag claims Tim Cook is gay. The evidence:
1. He appears to be single, a “lifelong bachelor.”
2. It’s the subject of gossip inside Apple.
2. Two “well-placed sources” say so.
If Cook steps into the CEO role, Apple’s other executives will encourage him to come out, Valleywag says. This would be a good thing for Silicon Valley and for gay rights.
Being gay is certainly no problem here in the San Francisco Bay Area. No one bats an eyelid. But Apple’s other execs are concerned about public perception, Valleywag says. Could it spell trouble for the Apple brand?
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
24 responses to “Is Tim Cook Gay? And Who Cares?”
I care. I hope he’s not. I’m a hard-core conservative and while it’s none of my business as to whom he chooses to spend his time with, it would leave a sour taste in my mouth.
Wait, please tell me that was a joke.
And what makes you think the world cares about your bigot opinion in this matter?
Asldfj, afraid you’ll buy a gay iPad bundled with musicals?
I also care. Although it is not my life, I think it’s wrong. I believe I can speak for I large percentage of the world when I say it’s wrong. I am not claiming to be perfect and no one is, but as much as pro-gays want it to be, the whole world will never accept it as “normal”. I also think it is a bad business decision. :)
I care too. There is a basic human nature, a rule to live in our lives. If you allow gay because it is their own choice then what can set us to keep in the boundary of sanity? Can I fuck my sister because we love each other? Can I fuck my son because it is our choice? Can I get married to my pet if I want to? What makes us humans different from the animals?
clearly, nothing separates you from animals.
…and I’m saddened by the fact that people like you breathe the same air as I do. Why would it be a bad business decision?
Is Apple for gay? I’ll never more apple
Comments like yours make me wish there was a Dislike button.
Agreed!
Its not a choice!!! Why does everyone think its one? You didnt choose to be straight, you just are. Same here with us gay people.
“What makes us humans different from the animals?”
Respect for each other and the fact that we dont just follow our feelings (like your hate.. yes, i accuse you to be an animal).
Im sorry for my english..
Its not a choice!!! Why does everyone think its one? You didnt choose to be straight, you just are. Same here with us gay people.
“What makes us humans different from the animals?”
Respect for each other and the fact that we dont just follow our feelings (like your hate.. yes, i accuse you to be an animal).
Im sorry for my english..
It is none of my business or anyone else’s. If he is, he is; if he’s not, he’s not. Not only do I think that it should not cloud anyone’s opinion of Apple if he is, it should not be a +1 for gays if he is. Just be, and quit trying to one up your position no matter what someone else is.
Animals are much better than people like MarkJK.
Hmm… Sounds a bit fruity to me.
In all seriousness, it won’t change the way I view Apple if their new CEO is or isn’t gay. I’m personally one who chooses not to go that route, but that’s my choice. The more gay men there are running around, the better the chance of me finding an attractive woman who isn’t taken :D
right on men!! i also dislike gays. from my point of view they are nothing less than perverted people; mind sick if you will. i mean i have asked several gay – if you could take a medicine that will change you back to being straight, would you take it?
an they all said no. therefore i realized, theoretically, it is a choice. damn perverts.
if being gay is a genetic disorder and lets say there was a cure for it. would you take it?Like
Reply
It isn’t a choice: http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/… Maybe you should read a book or get an education before spewing ignorant and unfounded beliefs.
Well, I still love you all as humans (That doesn’t mean I accept that being gay is normal.), and the fact that you want me to be deprived of oxygen doesn’t change my opinion.
P.S. I think it’s a bad business decision because it causes arguments and controversy. :)
I only see it as a problem if it causes Apple to begin actively promoting a pro-gay agenda similar to what Google (Gaygle) recently distributed in their “It Gets Better” campaign where they used icons like Woody from Toy Story to tell kids it’s alright to be gay and that painful consequences are only temporary. After seeing that ad running, I deleted Google Chrome from all my computers and vowed never to install it again. If Tim Cook were to use his position at Apple and the company’s resources to promote homosexuality in any way, you would see me ditch my iPhones, iPods, iMac, MacMini, iPad, and the MacBook Pro I’ve had my eye on. I don’t mind paying for quality tech, but I do have a major problem financing a company that intentionally promotes a homosexual lifestyle to children and teens. I’ve been a Mac/Apple person since the Apple IIe, and I actually would actually convert to PC or Linux if I thought for a second that my money was financing a gay agenda. I would stop evangelizing Apple everywhere I go and do my best to convince others to make do with alternate tools (not Google’s). It might seem kind of extreme, but I’m not an activist or anything. You won’t see me out there protesting with a homemade sign on the street. I’m just not going to finance a pro-gay agenda with my hard earned money, and I hope that the rest of straight Apple consumers would do the same. Maybe I’m not the only one that’s sick of all the gay hype in our media and how it’s infiltrated so much of what we see and hear every day.
What?
No one cares! That’s why the last comment was made a month ago!
I don’t care if Tim Cook is gay. All that I care is that he gets results as CEO of Apple.