Today, May 30, is the National Science and Technology Workers' Day. Let's talk about Tim Cook, a technology magnet in the LGBT group.
According to the news from foreign media on May 30, in the 2021 CEO salary ranking of Fortune 500 Enterprises released on Saturday, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook ranked second, following Elon Reeve Musk.
Steve Jobs said, "Tim Cook is the best employee I have recruited so far. After former Apple CEO James McCluney quit in 1997, I had difficulty in finding a right person. I couldn't pick out a candidate from the company inside, nor find the right person from my acquaintances. We had been always looking for until we found Tim Cook."
In 1998, Cook was invited by Jobs to work for Apple. In 2011, Cook officially took office as CEO of Apple and joined the Board of Directors. Two years later, in 2014, he published an article on the website of Business Week, clearly stating that he was a sexual minority.
After years of doubt, speculation and acquiescence from the outside world, Cook unexpectedly wrote an article in Businessweek that "becoming a homosexual is the greatest gift God has given me".
Previously, even if remaining silent on personal affairs, Cook has repeatedly expressed his support for the gay rights movement in public. Through his and Apple's efforts, American homosexuals were striving for equal legal rights and interests, including the most important "marriage right for homosexuals", i.e., to allow sexual minorities to marry legally.
Cook is not the only the one coming out of the closet in the technology industry. Facebook’s co-founder Chris Hughes, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, former Google executive and chief technology officer of the White House, Megan Smith, and editor-in-chief of the technology media Recode Kara Swisher are openly homosexuals. They also marry their partners and raise children. (Note: Smith and Swisher are same-sex couple).
San Francisco, where Silicon Valley is located, has always been known as the "Republic of Rainbow", because it is undoubtedly the most tolerant region for sexual minorities and the highest proportion of homosexuals in the United States. The mainstream culture here is tolerance, equality and freedom, and the accepting, recognizing and supporting gay groups to strive for their legitimate rights and interests is the direct characteristic.
This year's Pride Month is approaching. During Pride Month in June every year, thousands of LBGT groups (including groups of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other major cities in the United States publicly express their sexual orientation in street. Cook often makes a high-profile appearance at the Gay Pride parade in San Francisco.
In addition to the sexual minority, a large number of heterosexuals will also join them to express their support. Facebook’s co-founder Mark Elliot Zuckerberg and his employees join the parade in colored clothes every year.
In an interview in 2019, when asked whether he regretted for coming out of the closet, Cook said: "I haven't regretted a minute, not at all."
The reason is simple. As he wrote in the article to declare his coming out of the closet, "if I know, as the CEO of Apple, when I declare I am a homosexual, it can help those who are struggling with gender difficulties, or give comfort to those who feel lonely and yearn for equal rights, it is worth exchanging my privacy for that."
I hope every sexual minority may become a different kind of “flame”, even if only they themselves think so.
