In a personal essay published in Bloomberg Business week on Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook came out as gay.
Cook said that even though he hasn't publicly talked about his sexuality before, he never denied to be gay. He is proud to be gay and considers it as one of the greatest gifts "God has given" him.
The Apple CEO points out to his desire to maintain a basic level of privacy for not having previously talked about it. Cook said that a lot of colleagues at Apple know about his orientation and it doesn't make a difference on how they treat him.
However, he realized that his desire for personal privacy stops him from doing something important. The chief executive said it wasn't easy choice to release his essay, since his privacy is important to him.
On Monday, Cook called out his home state Alabama for being slow in championing LGBT rights. Under the state law, a person can still be fired for being gay. He said that the government has a long way to go and challenged them to be better.
"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," said Cook in the statement.
According Deena Fidas of the Human Rights Campaign, Tim Cook is the only openly gay CEO in Fortune 500. The first one was Glen Senk of Urban Outfitters Inc., but he resigned in 2012.
In the closing statement, Cook said, "We pave the sunlit path toward justice together, brick by brick. This is my brick."
