Noah Berger/Bloomberg via Getty Images There was an awkward moment this past summer it was unclear whether a journalist accidentally outed Apple CEO Tim Cook in a CNBC segment.
At the time, the 53-year-old tech exec had never publicly addressed the subject matter, but now, he's speaking up! On Thursday in his first person piece written for Business Week, Cook proclaims, "I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me."
Cook "never denied my sexuality," he writes, but he hadn't "publicly acknowledged it either, until now." He explains this was because he wanted "to maintain a basic level of privacy," and that he likes "keeping the focus on our [Apple] products and the incredible things our customers achieve with them" as opposed to drawing attention to himself.
He writes that he's "been open with many people about my sexual orientation," noting, "Plenty of colleagues at Apple know I'm gay, and it doesn't seem to make a difference in the way they treat me." In his Business Week piece, Cook acknowledges he's "had the good fortune to work at a company that loves creativity and innovation and knows it can only flourish when you embrace people's differences. Not everyone is so lucky."
So why is now the time to go public? He cites a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King: "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?"
Cook writes: "I often challenge myself with that question, and I've come to realize that my desire for personal privacy has been holding me back from doing something more important. That's what has led me to today."
And while he doesn't "consider myself an activist," he realizes "how much much I've benefited from the sacrifice of others", including "the public figures who have bravely come out have helped change perceptions and made our culture more tolerant."
Still, "Countless people, particularly kids, face fear and abuse every day because of their sexual orientation," he writes in Business Week. "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."
Apple "has long advocated for human rights and equality for all," writes Cook. "We've taken a strong stand in support of a workplace equality bill before Congress, just as we stood for marriage equality in our home state of California. And we spoke up in Arizona when that state's legislature passed a discriminatory bill targeting the gay community. We'll continue to fight for our values, and I believe that any CEO of this incredible company, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation, would do the same. And I will personally continue to advocate for equality for all people until my toes point up."
"We pave the sunlit path toward justice together, brick by brick," adds Cook, concluding, "This is my brick."