Gay rights are the civil rights issue of our time, whether in the marriage chapel, the emergency room or the workplace.
That’s why Apple CEO Tim Cook’s decision to proclaim he is “proud to be gay” in a powerful personal essay is an important and truly historic act.
For far too long, being gay has been something that was often hidden or denied. It’s long overdue that being gay should be just another fact of life, like whether a person is tall or short, black or white, left-handed or right-handed, Mac or PC.
Incredibly, being gay is still illegal in about 80 countries around the world; in the U.S., Cook could legally be fired for being gay in 29 states.
By his own admission, he’s a reluctant figurehead, and he is taking a big professional risk by being one of the first leaders in the corporate world to speak up. When one of the world’s preeminent corporate leaders says he’s gay, it advances the cause of equality.
Cook’s essay for Businessweek got the Internet buzzing Thursday, with many people calling it inspirational. It’s personally brave of Cook to speak out on the issue. And what a great line he includes: “I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.”
It’s a compelling contribution to the conversation about gay rights.
Critics who say Cook should keep his sexuality private, or that he’s using the bully pulpit of his position as head of one of the world’s most powerful and influential companies to pursue a radical agenda, are missing the mark.
It’s entirely appropriate — and in fact, truly important — that public figures speak out on issues of injustice and inequality. There are few things worse than standing mutely by while injustice is perpetrated. What could be more fundamental to American democracy than speaking out on issues you believe in?
In the words of the great Martin Luther King Jr., one of Cook’s heroes, “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”
Let’s hope others follow Cook’s, and Apple’s, lead when it comes to standing up and speaking out for civil rights and equality for all.
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.
31 responses to “Tim Cook’s ‘proud to be gay’ essay is important, historic and brave”
“It’s long overdue that being gay should be just another fact of life, like whether a person is tall or short, black or white, left-handed or right-handed, Mac or PC.”
Now wait just one second, Leander. I am with you on most of these points. But, under no circumstances, will I hang out with anyone who chooses to use a Windows PC.
Thank you for writing this piece.
How can something so fashionable and politically correct be historic, important and brave?
In 2007, the CEO of British Petroleum was fired for being gay. Research show that the majority of GLBT workers do not share their personal lives at work because of the real potential for career damaging consequences.
Think about that while you look at the photos of your kids on your desk.
That’s because in 29 states you can still be fired for being gay (mostly red states). In some places, like San Francisco, coming out can actually work to your advantage. With a large population of open LGBT’s they are more likely to support each other. Tim Cook is safe, because Cupertino is so close to San Francisco. If we were talking about Alabama, or Mississippi, where the laws flat out say: gay marriage is illegal, then Cook would have been fired yesterday.
My company is headquartered in AZ and my new boss is gay. It is the company and the company you keep that keeps you safe. Anti-discrimination laws protect hard working folks from religious nut jobs like Hobby Lobby.
Kudos to Cook. But as far as the “greatest gift God gave me” thing… Although I’m an atheist, I’m pretty sure that not how it works.
Time to stop supporting Apple!!
For his coming out? Doesn’t matter. Now about that Beats $3B purchase, well…
Please, be our guest. It is nice to know that Apple products will be
used by fewer bigots. So please replace all your iDevices with Android
ASAP. I’m sure Tim Cook will agree with me. Good riddance.
It will actually make many people switch from Android to Apple. Two of my friends said they are thinking of doing it.
A fact that might surprise you: All Android manufacturers also have gay
people working for them, some in senior management. In fact all
technology companies have gay employees so you better get rid of ALL
your gadgets. Good luck.
Yes I agree, god’s gift is rubbish. If anything, it is a curse because
we have 3.7 billion people hating us. (2.1 billion christians plus 1.6
billion muslims) I really don’t want to be gay. When I was still
religious, I prayed every day for 30 years to be straight and “god”
never changed anything. That is when I realized “he” doesn’t exist.
But “his” followers hate us and fire us from our jobs and some of them
want to jail us and execute us. The loving christians.
Why change when there’s nothing wrong with you? Being gay isn’t socially acceptable in some areas, that’s true, but it’s changing. Besides, who says the haters are right? I think they’re all wrong because prejudging someone simply because of a label they wear always is. I would think, though, that denying your sexuality and who you truly are would be MUCH worse than being gay. Life is too short to spend your life being someone you’re simply not, especially because that just leads to misery. It’s only one part of who you are, anyway. I hope one day you realize I’m right and simply accept yourself for who you are.
A human being is a homosexual? Yawn….
“Important, historic and brave”? You must be joking. :)
Biggest Apple Fanboy just went Samsung
Thank you and good riddance. See my reply to “Jimmy” above. Ditto to you.
SURPRISE!! Samsung also has gay employees. Now what are you going to do?
Seriously…. is there anybody on this planet who didn’t know this guy was homosexual? Is he just now figuring it out or something??
Actually didn’t really give it much thought, to tell you the truth. I don’t judge every CEO by what I think his sexual orientation is. LOL!
Wow, I’m impressed he did that. Apple is huge company. He didn’t have to do this, but I think it’s great he had the courage to make it public. Good on him.
This whole ‘Tim Cook’ is gay is stupid as fuck imo.
This guy shouldn’t be bringing up his sexual orientation at all with regards to his work.
What I do at home shouldn’t be broadcast all over the news and tied into my job. Period.
This guy is your typical, “I’mm tttthhho gayyy. Look at meeee. I need attention.” “Let me have a big event to broadcast my gayness to the world and make the biggest coming out party that nobody can ever outdo.”
Do your fucking job and leave whether you’re gay or straight out of the picture.
Get the fuck over yourself.
This guy is the type of asshole that goes around broadcasting how fucking gay he is everywhere he goes then cries what a vitcim when someone tells him to shut the fuck up already.
You are right, it should not be necessary to say you are gay.
Unfortunately it is still an issue with the christian bigots because
they fire someone for being gay. So someone has to lead the way and stop
that shit.
When a few reborn christian bigots at my former work found out I’m gay,
my car got vandalized. I couldn’t prove it was them, but I’m absolutely
sure is was. The vandalizing went on for about a year, every couple of
weeks something else. Another thing that I’m 100% sure about, is that
these reborn christian bigots are closet-homos. Going on and on and on
about how evil and disgusting it is, (as they went on and on) is a sure
sign of a closet-case.
So Tim Cook coming out is about making it a little more acceptable so
that gays don’t get fired and don’t get their property vandalized. Or
get beaten up as is still happening in most places.
“I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.”
Why bring God into it? He clearly hasn’t read his copy of the Bible lately or he would know that the Christian faith believes homosexuality to be a mortal sin. His private life is his business but as a shareholder I don’t agree that he should use his position as CEO to elevate his soapbox to promote his personal beliefs. If he feels that passionate about the subject resign as Apple CEO and run for office.
And Mr Kahney who are you to preach to those people in the 80 countries around the world where being gay is a crime? Most of them have democratically elected politicians who make their laws. What makes you right and them wrong? I’m sick and tired of the politically correct though police telling us what to say, think, believe.
“I don’t agree that he should use his position as CEO to elevate his soapbox to promote his personal beliefs.” – Yeah, because Steve Jobs was well known for keeping his personal beliefs to himself. Honestly, just say you don’t like gay people – dispense with the obfuscation.
As for you being told what to say, think, and believe, you are writing an opposing comment on an article written by Leander on Leander’s website. I fail to see how he’s being anything other than accommodating when it comes to enabling your right to vocalise your bigotry. By all means… continue.
I seriously doubt cook knows the mind of God
Homosexuality is a perversion, and homosexuals are perverts.
And you are an evil christian bigot, like most christians. 100% sure
you are a self-loathing closeted homosexual yourself, the worst kind of
hypocrite. I was also in the closet and I know many bigoted hateful
christians like you. They are all self-hating closet-homos.
Actually, it’s about being bigoted, and preferentially supporting gays rather than straights. There’s nouveau inequality for you. Oh, and tribal god images have nothing to do with anything!
Meh. Who cares?
Being gay is ideology. Why hasn’t he said I’m proud of being homosexual? Oh. You might be led to think it’s the same thing… Well. It is not. Several homosexuals have advanced in favor of the right of the family, made of a man and a woman, of children having a mother and father. I’m proud of not being gay, of thinking for myself, of not discriminating those who think differently. Yep. That’s right. In the US, apparently, thinking of a traditional family is … Thinking differently. Go figure …
I am SOOOO sick of this need for so many to feel they need to make a public announcement about their sexuality, their hemorrhoids, or some other personal private matter. And doubly as disgusted and fed up with POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. Bullshit! So, what’s next, Tim’s ‘Marriage’…give me a phucing break. You want to suck some sausage, so what, go ahead but DO IT IN PRIVATE. You should not be condemned, for it is your choice or makeup, but we sure as hell don’t need to be CELEBRATING IT, like it is some wonderful event!
Your little rant is the reason it is important. Kids growing up are looking for role models. In spite of you and others, they will find out, sooner or later, that being a loving person is more important that leaving a trail of destruction behind.
Yea, you hypocrites just love to point the finger and call everyone who doesn’t see your view a bigot. Yet, a guy like a Tim Tebow, who professes to clean living and a belief in a higher power is mocked by the libs, just as a conservative Blacks like Clarence Thomas or Bill Cosby are NOT black enough according to the left. Seems you would be well advised to seek role models for your children besides gay CEOs. And i guess the fact that Cook came out of the closet for some unknown reason, must mean he IS a loving person, as opposed to someone who thinks what he does behind closed doors should remain there, is not. My disgust at every one’s need in this country to air their laundry on TV for their 15 minutes of fame…which today turns into an eternity, has nothing to do with whether I love my fellow man or not, and for you to conclude that is ludicrous.