Apple CEO Tim Cook has penned a brave and difficult piece about his sexuality and if it impacts him in the workplace.
In a piece for Bloomberg Businessweek today, Apple CEO Tim Cook has spoken candidly about his personal life in a revealing piece where he stated that "I'm proud to be gay".
While Cook admits in the opening paragraph that he has always wanted to maintain a level of privacy about his life away from the main stage of Apple announcements, he felt that it was important to help others by speaking openly about his sexuality.
"While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven’t publicly acknowledged it either, until now. So let me be clear: I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me" Cook wrote, adding that it has given him confidence, the ability to rise above the bigotry of others, and, importantly, "the skin of a rhinoceros, which comes in handy when you’re the CEO of Apple."
He points out that Apple has always been a progressive and welcoming place when it comes to diversity in the workplace, and they haven't been shy about it either. According to The Verge, both Cook and other company representatives took part in San Francisco’s Pride Parade earlier this year, while he also gave his backing to the Employment Nondiscrimination Act when it was going through congress in another piece that he wrote for The Wall Street Journal.
Cook recognises that while this was a tough thing to do and he will lose a certain amount of privacy as a result, it's worth that price: "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."
You can read the full op-ed piece on Bloomsberg Businessweek over here.
Via Bloomberg Businessweek and The Verge
