Tim Cook: 'I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me'

Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, has publicly come out as gay and described his sexuality as “among the greatest gifts God has given me”.

Cook, who had previously not acknowledged nor denied his sexuality, becomes by far the most influential gay business executive as head of the world’s most valuable company.

“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, 53, said in an opinion article for Bloomberg Businessweek.

“For years, I’ve been open with many people about my sexual orientation. Plenty of colleagues at Apple know I’m gay, and it doesn’t seem to make a difference in the way they treat me. Of course, I’ve 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.”

Cook, who became the boss of Apple in August 2011 shortly before founder Steve Jobs died from pancreatic cancer, said he had not previously opened up about his sexuality in an effort to maintain his privacy while running one of the world’s most scrutinised companies.

His sexuality had long been known in Silicon Valley, and elsewhere, but he had chosen not to publicly address the issue. Cook was named the most powerful gay person by Out magazine in 2013, and attended Silicon Valley’s gay pride this summer. He was also accidentally outed by a CNBC TV anchor during a discussion on the lack of gay business people in the US.

Cook becomes the only openly gay chief executive among the top 1,000 companies in the US, according to the New York Times.

Britain’s most high profile openly gay executive is Christopher Bailey, the boss of Burberry, who is married to actor Simon Woods.

Other openly gay business executives include the NBC chairman, Robert Greenblatt, the UK chief executive of HSBC Bank, Antonio Simoes, and hedge fund manager, Peter Thiel.

Lord Browne, who resigned as BP chief executive in 2007 after lying in court in an attempt to prevent publication of ­stories about his sexuality and private life, said Cook’s coming out would “accelerate change in the corporate world”.

“I hope that Tim Cook has set an example which other leaders will follow,” Browne, who has become an outspoke campaigner for gay rights, wrote in the Guardian. “If there are more openly gay CEOs and senior leaders in business, it will give other people the confidence to come out, and to be themselves at work. That is good not just for them as individuals, but also for their employers, which will benefit from greater employee engagement and productivity.”

Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest LGBT civil rights group, said Cook’s announcement would “save countless lives”.

He added: “He has always been a role model, but today millions across the globe will draw inspiration from a different aspect of his life. Tim Cook is proof that LGBT young people can dream as big as their minds will allow them to, whether they want to be doctors, a US senator, or even CEO of the world’s biggest brand.”

Cook has long been a vocal supporter of gay rights and spoken out against discrimination of minorities. This week he attacked his home state of Alabama for being too slow to guarantee gay rights. “Under the law, citizens of Alabama can still be fired based on their sexual orientation,” Cook said. “We can’t change the past, but we can learn from it and we can create a different future.”

In June, he tweeted his support for the White House’s decision to ban LGBT discrimination at federal contractors, calling it “a matter of basic human dignity”. And in February, he congratulated the coach of his hometown college football team for saying he would be fine with a gay player on the team.

“Throughout my professional life, I’ve tried to maintain a basic level of privacy. I come from humble roots, and I don’t seek to draw attention to myself,” Cook said in the Bloomberg Businessweek article. “Apple is already one of the most closely watched companies in the world, and I like keeping the focus on our products and the incredible things our customers achieve with them.

“At the same time, I believe deeply in the words of Dr Martin Luther King, who said: ‘Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for ­others?’ I often challenge myself with that question, and I’ve come to realise that my desire for personal privacy has been holding me back from doing something more important. That’s what has led me to today.”

Cook said being gay had been “tough and uncomfortable at times” but also made him “more empathetic, which has led to a richer life” and given him “the confidence to be myself, to follow my own path, and to rise above adversity and bigotry”. He added: “It’s also given me the skin of a rhinoceros, which comes in handy when you’re the CEO of Apple.”

Cook said the world had changed considerably for gay people since he was a child, but more needed to be done to create a fair and more equal society.

“There 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 said he does not consider himself a gay rights activist, but he realised how much he has benefited from the sacrifices of equal rights activists in the past.

“I’ll admit that this wasn’t an easy choice. Privacy remains important to me, and I’d like to hold on to a small amount of it,’ he said. “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.”