The rainbow apple – Newspaper

Friday, October, 2014

31 Two days before celebrating his 54th birthday, Tim Cook counselor delegate Apple made yesterday best gift to the gay community activists fighting for equality and an end to discrimination. In a personal essay published in Bloomberg Businessweek , the man who relieved in 2011 Steve Jobs and became the face of the company after the founder’s death was declared “proud being gay “and said homosexuality was for him” one of the greatest gifts of God. “

Take the plunge” has not been an easy decision “for Cook who unofficially had long since left the closet, but to take their sexual orientation to the public sphere has won wide acclaim. This is a milestone because no employer so prominent openly about his homosexuality spoken in the United States, where, according to a study by Deloitte, 83% of gays, lesbians and bisexuals hide their sexual identity in the workplace.

Since the gay community and business, and from Silicon Valley yesterday spread a wave of appreciation. And Mark Zuckerberg the creator of Facebook, shared on their wall section Cook giving the “thank you for showing what it means to be a real, authentic and courageous leader.”

THE WITNESS OF DISCRIMINATION / For the CEO of Apple, born in a poor family in southern Mobile (Alabama) and raised in Roberstdale, with just over 5,200 inhabitants, awareness of discrimination is long . In his childhood he witnessed the struggle for civil rights and December, for example, recalled in a speech an episode that marked: watching a group of Ku Klux Klan burning a cross in front of the home of a black small Cook with only 10 years, he yelled to stop. They did not and was terrified when one of the hooded capirote rose; It was a local priest

That footprint surfaced yesterday in a text in which he quoted a Martin Luther King (“The most persistent and urgent question of life is. What are you doing for others? ‘) and recalling that there are still states where it is legal dismissal or expulsion of a rental by homosexuality. Given these realities, Cook said he knows that the common good has been more than a desire for privacy itself had “brake” so far. “If you hear the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to accept who he is, or give comfort to someone who is lonely, or inspire people to insist on equality, then it’s worth spending my own privacy, “wrote the manager.

The test is also sprinkled with praises to your company (” who loves creativity and innovation and know they can flourish only when you accept the differences’) and painted an intimate portrait their experience, remembering that “a person is not defined only by their sexuality.” “Being gay has given me a deeper understanding of what it means to be in the minority and has opened a window into the challenges they deal with every day people in other minority groups. It has made me more empathetic, which has led me to a richer life. It was hard and uncomfortable at times, but it has given me the confidence to be myself and go my own way to overcome adversity and hatred. It has also given me rhinoceros skin, useful when you’re Apple’s CEO. “