As the iPhone 6 gets ready to launch, everyone is taking notice. But here’s something that people are taking notice of that isn’t a cell phone: Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple. He’s got big shoes to fill after Steve Jobs´s death, but it looks like he’s doing just fine.
Yet there’s a growing wave of concern over one issue that Tim Cook seems to avoid: talking about his sexuality. He has backed LGBT issues before, and supported Apple’s $100,000 donation to stopping Prop 8 from passing.
Many LGBT activists believe that if someone is going to identify as gay, they need to be gay everywhere rather than shying away from the topic. Yet we are firm believers in one principle above all: everyone has the right to remain silent and share what they feel is public information. Tim Cook doesn’t look like he’s ashamed to be identified with LGBT issues at all.
What he looks like to us is a busy executive that really doesn’t want to have a thousand eyes poking into his private life. We can’t blame him at all for taking that stance. Pressuring him to speak about a big issue like his homosexuality isn’t kind, and it destroys the heart of what we believe here.
It’s no one’s business but yours. If you want to sing it from the rooftops, go ahead and do that. But if you want to make it more of an intimate thing that everyone knows but doesn’t hassle you about, then that’s fine too.
Talking about your sexuality like it’s a normal thing is the way to get people to realize that we are just like other people. We’re not practicing some secret ritual that nobody can know about. We just want to have regular lives. Asking someone that already has enough spotlight on them to talk about something personal like this just isn’t fair.
Be sure that you’re looking at what the other person might feel when you expect them to come out. Tim Cook can be someone to look up to even if he doesn’t come onto national TV or in the press about his sexuality much.
Do you feel the pressure to come out? Do you think it would make you feel better if you did? If so, make sure that you have the conversation with people that matter to you first. You want to have a full support group if you’re going to openly declare your homosexuality. It’s not fair, but the truth is that there are still people in this world that will have a problem with you over your sexuality. Having a strong group of people behind you means that it won’t get to you as much.
