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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."
He should be more concerned with what he does with his Apple than what he does with his banana.
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).
Valleywag, Jan. 2011: Meet Apple's New Boss, The Most Powerful Gay Man in Silicon Valley
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.
On the one hand, yes. Who cares? But we're not the target audience then are we. The fact that so many of us say *yawn* when folks like this come out means we have moved beyond caring, and that's great really. Folks shouldn't think twice about it, but as a society we're not there yet, and maybe it will matter just a little to someone struggling or just figuring things out.
Yeah, let's totally just ignore the history behind the use of the word 'pride' in this context. It'll totally make us look smart, edgy, and witty.
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.
Does this mean they are bringing back the rainbow colored apple logo?
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."
Possibly proud means "not ashamed" in this context.
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings 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.
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...
The idea of "gay pride" isn't a statement of "this is how I am", it's about taking a stand against oppression. People are routinely killed in the United States due solely to their sexual orientation. Killed. Do you fucking hear me? KILLED. And the US being one of the safest places in the world to be gay! You're a lot worse off if you're in Russia, Africa, eastern Europe, many parts of India, pretty much all of Central America, the Phillipines, etc.etc., and publicly came out.
Do people get routinely killed (or are denied access to their sick partner in a hospital, or tax breaks, etc.) for being 5'10 or being a good programmer? Emphatically no. So sit your ass down and keep your "being proud of being gay is the same as being proud of being 5'10" nonsense to yourself.
You can grouse if you want, but the fact is that the whole "proud" strategy has gotten them pretty damn far. Eventually it will be anachronistic, but it's been pretty successful to date. It wasn't so long ago that it was socially acceptable to beat the holy hell of them, and now most states recognize their marriage. Amazing.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
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."
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.
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
Says the guy who's plainly never been part of a despised minority treated as second-class citizens simply because of how you were born.
Well. I say that and then remember that some black folks old enough to remember Jim Crow still think that it's OK to treat gays like second-class citizens, because religion.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Because lots of people don't share your ludicrously stupid idea of what marriage is.
No, but we're getting there. Like with race: The true end of that campaign can be declared not when the country has a black president, but when no-one notices.
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.
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.
No, liberals did.
Beat you with a crowbar? And rammed your car for being a straight white male? And this was done by liberals?
I seriously doubt it.
Or more accurately, even if you were beaten with a crowbar by "liberals" it was probably nothing to do with you being white/straight/male/middleclass and everything to with you being an asshole.
And your final sentence is indicative of just the oppression I've been first to suffer for being born this way.
I'm white/straight/middleclass/male too... but I'm left handed -- lucky for me right? I must be the only thing that keeps me safe from the liberal crowbar beatings.
There is nothing wrong with having a sexual orientation, no matter what it is.
Acting upon it can be bad.
Btw, Pedophiliacs are the only one of those three which is a sexual orientation, and a very sad one at that.
You can only romantically love pre-pubescents.
That is terribly sad.
Raping children is horrible though and is entirely separate.
Bestiality is the act of having sex with animals.
I believe you are looking for the term zoofiliacs, which is, just like Pedophiles, very sad.
And raping animals is a complex issue, especially since we do it with insemination.
Defining exactly why it feels worse when we enjoy raping them then when we do it to kill and eat their children is for me impossible, but, hey, not really the topic here?
Incest is not something which is related to sexual preference.
It's not like people who have sex with their family have no ability to be attracted or romantically involved with other people.
The issue is two-folded:
1: High risk for problematic offpsring, explaining why almost all humans have an aversion to the behaviour.
2: There is a high risk of problematic situations occuring when children have sex with parents or siblings.
It's not so much that homosexuality is different from any other sexual orientation, it's just that there is no logical reason to argue against it being a perfectly fine way to live your life.
Most sexual orientations barring hetero or BTQ are way less easy to incorporate into a decent life.
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
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.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
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
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.