The Internet was filled with praises after Apple CEO Tim Cook came out of the closet and opened up about his sexuality on Thursday in an essay from Businessweek.
Aside from helming the world's largest mobile phone maker, coming out made Cook one of the highest-profiles LGBT business leader in the world.
However, Cook revealed that he "is one of the lucky ones." As Apple's CEO, he was fortunate "to work in a company that knows it can only flourish when you embrace people's differences."
Bustle reports that it may seem that Cook made it look easy to speak out about sexuality in the workplace, but in reality, it is a big task to conquer.
A stigma against homosexuality in the workplace is still very present, as proven by the absence of federal laws which aim to protect employees from discrimination. Furthermore, there are still 29 states where an employee can still be fired for being gay, which leaves over 50 percent of total workers vulnerable to employment discrimination, all because of the stigma created against homosexuality.
Most of the Americans, however, sang in chorus agreeing that the practice of firing a gay employee is "terrible."
A Harris Poll released on Thursday revealed that almost 70 percent of Americans support the proposition that "federal laws should be expanded to include protection from job discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity."
Moreover, 69 percent of the respondents stated that they believe it was illegal to fire people just because of their sexual orientation.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government has put out efforts to address the issue on homosexuality in the workplace. President Barack Obama previously issued an executive order last July that prevented discrimination based on sexual orientation against all federal employees, which greatly improved the working conditions of nearly 3 million people working for the federal government.
However, those who were not working for the federal government remained blinded against sexual discrimination still.
