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Tim Cook: "I'm Proud To Be Gay"
An anonymous reader writes Apple CEO Tim Cook has publicly come out as gay. While he never hid his sexuality from friends, family, and close co-workers, Cook decided it was time to make it publicly known in the hopes that the information will help others who don't feel comfortable to do so. He said, "I don't consider myself an activist, but I realize how much I've benefited from the sacrifice of others. So 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."
Cook added that while the U.S. has made progress in recent years toward marriage equality, there is still work to be done. "[T]here are laws on the books in a majority of states that allow employers to fire people based solely on their sexual orientation. There are many places where landlords can evict tenants for being gay, or where we can be barred from visiting sick partners and sharing in their legacies. Countless people, particularly kids, face fear and abuse every day because of their sexual orientation."
Cook added that while the U.S. has made progress in recent years toward marriage equality, there is still work to be done. "[T]here are laws on the books in a majority of states that allow employers to fire people based solely on their sexual orientation. There are many places where landlords can evict tenants for being gay, or where we can be barred from visiting sick partners and sharing in their legacies. Countless people, particularly kids, face fear and abuse every day because of their sexual orientation."
who cares?
Gays are equal to straights and should have the same rights. I find it sad that announcements like this still make headlines. It shouldn't matter nor should anyone really care (unless they are looking to hook up).
Sort of like, "I'm proud to be 5'10"", or, "I'm proud to be male" or something. We have exactly nothing to do with creating these conditions so why would we be proud of them? Things to be proud of would be, "I wrote some amazing code." Or perhaps, "I ran five miles and made my personal best time." You aren't supposed to be proud of things you had no control of...
Who _didn't_ already know he was gay? Show of hands...
He is. Did you even read his statement? He quite clearly didn't personally want to make his private life so public, but felt that it's in the public's best interest to know as it might help fight bigotry and intolerance.
he's sad he can't poach more couture company VPs. Apple has become a jewelry company for the 3-percenters. and indentures as many H1-B holders as possible to do it.
For pretty much all people in tech I've worked with, yes it doesn't matter really. No one gives a fuck if you're gay, poly or whatever.
However, outside of the tech world, I've had to deal with plenty of people who are still disgusted by gays or get angry about the whole gay marriage thing. Let's not even get into what happen to that gay kid in high school when you live in a small rural towns. I've seen it when I was in high school, I still hear about it from younger teen, I've recently seen a father disavow his kid because he was gay. I could go on and on and I'm not gay, so I can't imagine the horror stories a gay person would've to tell, of growing up in a small rural town.
Would posting a message like that make you look homophobic?
Did you get beat up in high school for being 5'10"? Have you ever been told that you're only legally allowed to marry people within a particular height range?
I thought not.
It's not so much as being proud of being gay - but standing up to bigotry an intolerance is something to be proud of.
It's not proud as in "I am proud that I have successfully accomplished gayness." It's proud as in the opposite of "I'm ashamed that I am gay and/or feel that I have to hide it."
To all those saying "who cares?" it matters precisely for the reasons Cooks give. Not everyone enjoys the same benefits as straight people in our society due to bigotry and ignorance enshrined in various State laws. If Cook can help bring attention to this, more power to him.
Right, so the next time someone makes a joke starting with, "Hey, did you hear the one about the guy with 10-fingers?" Or the next time some demi-celebrity tweets, "@SoAndSo, That's so 10-toed." Or political figures build entire platforms on saying people with 10-fingers can't be legally married to other people with 10-fingers or adopt kids. Or a employer say, "Yeah, Mr. 10-fingers, we don't like people working here who have 10-fingers, so we're firing you." Or a landlord says, "I saw you bring that 10-fingered person into your apartment last night, so I'm evicting you." Or religious figures say things like, "Ebola is God's punishment for us allowing people with balls big as church bells to be accepted by society." When any of these things happen, you'll have a point. Until then, there's a reason homosexuals feel a need to draw attention to something that really shouldn't matter, but which very much does in this society.
So it's great that you don't care what his orientation is and you would treat him exactly like you would treat anyone else. Congratulations on being part of the solution. But then you're not the target audience so why do you even care enough to post about how much you don't care?
You're not free to tell the rest of the world how to live.
Yet just told me to STFU expressing an opinion concerning religion after expresing your own opinion concerning religion. Now that's hypocrisy.
However, outside of the tech world, I've had to deal with plenty of people who are still disgusted by gays or get angry about the whole gay marriage thing
I work in tech in a very liberal Canadian city and have a bunch of gay friends, and sometimes get lulled into thinking the world is a big happy accepting place.
Then I step outside the downtown bubble, just by a few miles, and I'm stunned by what I sometimes encounter. I do a little writing for a group that makes short films, and we had a shoot where one of the actors didn't show up. He was part of a couple, and I suggested we recast the part using a woman who didn't have a part yet, so the couple would be gay but everything else would be the same. The film was about relationships and this couple was fighting about stuff. There might be a hug at the end, but nothing more overtly affectionate than that.
The young, professional woman I suggested this too looked at me with her eyes literally wide with horror and said, "I'm sorry, I can't do that. I'm really straight."
In that situation it wasn't my place to berate her for her bigotry, particularly as I didn't think until much later of the correct come-back: "You're really earthbound, too, but I bet you'd play an astronaut if I asked you to."
So yeah, while to so many of us this is a done deal, our gay friends and family still have to walk around every day wondering when they are going to encounter that kind of horrified rejection, and while at least they don't get beat up as often as they used to it still has to be pretty awful for them.
If anyone wants people like Tim Cook to stop making a big deal about being gay (and really, don't we all want that?) they should make sure to be accepting and matter-of-fact about the gay people all around us, whose much-talked-about "agenda" involves living happy, fulfilling lives.
Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
The problem with this line of thinking is that if you say something like, "I went to the beach with my Wife this weekend," nobody says that you are talking about your sex life in public. If you say something like, "I went to the beach with my Husband this weekend" all of a sudden a bunch of bigots like you are throwing a hissy fit. If he says that he's gay, that is not "talking about his sex life." Moron.
"didn't personally want to make his private life so public" somehow clashes with "I'm so proud ..."
i have to give Tim Cook a lot of credit for the courage it took for him to publicly admit to being gay in a culture still not completely willing to accept gays. Especially since he is at the helm of a very high profile company and it provides an interesting counterpoint to Chick-Fil-A's CEO's anti-gay sentiments.
Jesus never commented on homosexuality in the New Testament. What the Bible does say about homosexuality comes from the Old Testament and Paul the Apostle in the New Testament. If the Son of God has nothing to say about homosexuality, it probably doesn't matter as long as sexual relations is kept within a marriage.
Your 99 cent theology sucks. Jesus claimed to be God in the flesh and as such, he was the one who created man and woman as part of the created order. Therefore, the OT stated exactly how strongly God felt about homosexuality and Jesus never redefined that. In fact, Jesus didn't redefine sin; he redefined the punishment for sin because he was to bear that punishment himself on behalf and in place of mankind. Jesus called out the woman at the well for adultery, which was also condemned in the OT, and he told the prostitute to go and sin no more. Paul spoke about unnatural relations which was understood at the time to include homosexuality, bestiality, incest, et al.
As for my opinion of Mr. Cook, it didn't change a bit. It's between him and God. He had big shoes to fill and I hope he continues to run the company well. Wish I had bought when the stock tanked into the $400's.
"Now, I doubt any of you would prefer a rolled up newspaper as a weapon against a dictator or a criminal intruder."
"Talking about your sex life," to me, implies that you are talking about the specific details of what you do in the bedroom with someone. Talking about your partner, or what kind of people you like to date, is not talking about your sex life, no matter how much you want it to be.
And nobody would have a press conference to say that they were heterosexual because being heterosexual is not punishable by death anywhere in the world ... homosexuality is still punishable by death in some countries.
Sorry, but if being Gay is the way you are, something you are born with, then so is pedophile.
How is it Gays seem to think that their sexual preference is not abnormal but most other sexual preferences are? And don't start in with the consenting adults bullshit. We are talking about who a person finds sexually attractive, not if they act on it or not.
Pedophile
Bestiality,
Incestual
etc.
No, he's not talking about his sex life. Just because you are hetero doesn't mean you are even having sex. It just means that if you were to have sexual relations it's more likely that your partner will be of the opposite sex.
In an enlightened, equal world, people who say things like "I'm proud to be gay" as if an accident of birth was something of note would get the exactly same reaction as people who say things like "I'm proud to be white" or "I'm proud to be male".
I'm pretty sure we're not quite there yet.
Log in or piss off.
Wait, so you suggested to someone who was straight to play a gay part? Tolerance does not mean forced acceptance. I am pro-gay rights, but I find gay porn disgusting. That does not make me a homophobe.
When people say you're disgusting, deviant, abnormal, strange, and wrong to be gay (or a member of whatever discriminated against group), you can either hunch your shoulders, cringe, and take it or say, "Fuck you! I'm not ashamed to be who I am--I'm proud of it!"
When someone says, "Any fool can see
Got a picture of your wife on your desk? Ever mention her in offhand conversation? Sure would be nice if gay people were free to do that too without being fired, which isn't true in a lot of places.
Where? These days, what you suggest is pretty much illegal (in the USA) so I suggest that when you see such things take place, make a point to take such cases to COURT.
Everyplace I've worked in the last 15 years, firing for the things you suggest would be grounds for a lawsuit, not to mention run afoul of company policy in which we where usually trained annually. There are complaint processes and a whole department of Human Resources people who's job it is to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen.
Where I'd not say it never happens today, I don't think it is as common as you might seem to think.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Because lots of people don't share your ludicrously stupid idea of what marriage is.
Why would you say:
1) He shouldn't be proud because being gay is not a choice
but
2) He should be unproud if he was a paedophile?
Do you consider paedophilia to not be a choice? How do you get +4 insightful for saying something so blatantly illogical?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Not sure where you live, but I wasn't brought up to think it was acceptable to "beat the holy hell" out of anyone. Well, maybe in self-defense.
So tolerant...
He's saying he's "proud" rather than "ashamed" -- because unfortunately, many people still think that being gay is something to be ashamed of. They believe that being gay is somehow a sign of moral failing as opposed to what it is: a normal human characteristic.
"Gay Pride" parades are about that very idea, and have been for decades. When you see someone wearing a shirt on St. Patrick's Day that says, "Proud to be Irish", do you assume they're claiming superiority to you in some way? Of course not. It's the same thing.
Clearly you do care, or you wouldn't have bothered to post. Unfortunately, all you did with your post is attempt to frame his use of the word "proud" in an incorrect and unflattering light. I'm not sure why that was so important to you.
To me, it's still amazing that a person can declare their *hatred* for certain religions or ethnicities and many people will feel that it's socially acceptable, but declaring your *love* for another adult can still have serious social and financial repercussions. So in my book he's doing something brave, and that's something to be proud of too.
Koans and fables for the software engineer
People aren't opposed to homosexuals, they are opposed to homosexual lifestyle: being a pervert, anal sex, drugs, rape, life constantly centered around sex, acting (and most of times being) crazy, misoginy, low morals, irresponsibility, polyamory, huge vector of STDs, generally distrustful, known to play the victim, and the worst of all pederasty (40% or more of gay people are pedophiles, which is why they are barred from adoption).
I know quite a few straight people who done most, if not everything, on your list. Some of them even called themselves Christians. Homosexual are sinners like the rest of us. It's not our place to judge and condemn them. God will decide everyone's fate.
I don't see why it should be a reason to be "proud". Gay is the way he is rather than something he has chosen but it does not confer some form of superiority on him. If he was a paedeophile though, that definitely *would* be a reason to be "unproud".
Whatever, see if I care.
Well you do seem to care enough to make a point about not caring.
You also manage to put the words 'gay' and 'paedeophile' close together in your comment, which is a glib and common association make by people who at best, are ill-informed. There are so many things one could be 'not proud of' and you picked one likely to cause offense to gay men..
For me, 'gay pride' is a reaction to the predudices of others. I was told, as a kid, I should be ashamed of myself for being gay. I was physically intimidated and attacked, because the physical, sexual love I wanted to experience was different to most. I was bullied at school. My parents were fearful of stigma which would be attached to them for having a gay child. I felt noone I knew approved of me and I was ashamed.
My 'gay pride' comes from mostly getting through all that and becoming a successful human being, and for helping others by campaigning and lobbying for change to make life better for similar poeple. Standing up and saying something helps other people overcome their fears. Tim Cook, is heard around the world, in Kenya, perhaps, where recent regressive laws are resulting in violence and murder of gay men.
-R
You are wrong, it's telling who you are capable of falling in love with.
Stop focusing so much on sex, sexual orientation is an emotional and attraction issue, not a sexual perversion.
Except homosexuals are harassed, discriminated against, bullied, being told that they are sick, abnormal.
And so forth.
Just because they are incapable of falling in love with the opposite sex.
Definition of abnormal: deviating from the normal or average.
;-)
So approximately 10% of the population is homosexual, therefore, "abnormal" is a proper term to use to describe people that are homosexuals.
Note that mensa members are abnormal, so are people that make more than $100,000 year. It's not a necessarily a derogatory term, it actually a proper factual description.
Yeah, posting to slashdot is definitely "abnormal" too since most people don't even know what slashdot is.
Not sure where you live, but I wasn't brought up to think it was acceptable to "beat the holy hell" out of anyone. Well, maybe in self-defense.
Not sure where you live, but you might want to look into the history of gay rights and the general abuse meted out.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
You're entirely missing the point. There are many people who feel that gay == shameful, the direct implication being that they want gay folk to feel ashamed. Proud is an in-their-face declaration that they are not ashamed.
That's all it is.
It's the same for any aspect of life for which there are detractors; some people think geekery is a bad thing; hence "geek and proud." Some people think prostitution is a bad thing; hence "sex worker and proud", and so on for a long list of "your prejudices do not define me" issues.
It's a very natural -- and correct -- reaction to a society where people are encouraged to coerce others into specific behavioral channels without regard for the consent or interest of those others.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Half black president. He was raised by his white mother. To call him black is just wrong on many levels. I don't care, I voted for him because I hated Sarah Palin not be cause I wanted a 'black' president.
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
Proud != !Ashamed , common misconception. The word "proud" should be reserved for something positive that one has accomplished, not something that one just is. He isn't and shouldn't be ashamed either. He could perhaps be proud of coming out if it took some courage or there was some barrier to overcome, but that barrier has been getting lower and lower.
You know, I guess the movies might say otherwise, but it was never okay to beat up sissies, once you've grown up.
Take it from somebody who was there, deep in the south, long ago.
In the UK homosexual sex was a crime punishable by imprisonment up until the 1960s. Even those who refrained from sex were often forced to take medication or undergo "procedures" to "correct" their behaviour.
Notably including Alan Turing, who was chemically castrated with synthetic estrogen, and eventually committed suicide. I am glad to read that he was formally (royally) pardoned at the end of last year. I cannot imagine who thought castration was an appropriate response, especially given the long traditions of "rum, sodomy, and the lash" in the British Navy, but I suppose one must make allowances for the past, even if it is within living memory.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
Animals can't give consent.
Absolute nonsense. Were that true, all sex between animals (humans are animals, too) would be rape. Animals might not all be able to consent through speech (since non-human animals can't speak human language), but their actions may imply consent. There are other kinds of consent than just speech, and that applies even to humans. Legal fiction.
Children can't give consent (and shouldn't need to be asked).
Depends on the individual. It is certainly not impossible. This is just a legal fiction, as usual.
Consensual sex is key. We go successfully from "consensual".
Now, if only people would stop creating arbitrary, nonsensical definitions of what qualifies as consent... These things should be determined on a case-by-case basis, not a black-and-white "Group X can't ever consent because we said so."