Apple CEO Tim Cook: ‘I’m proud to be gay’

World Today

Apple CEO Tim Cook says he’s proud to be gay. The public declaration, in an essay written for Bloomberg Businessweek, makes Cook the highest-profile business CEO to come out as gay.

Cook said that while he never denied his sexuality, he never publicly acknowledged it, either. The executive said that for years he’s been open with many people about his sexual orientation and that plenty of his Apple colleagues know he is gay.

Cook wrote in the column, published Thursday, that it wasn’t an easy choice to publicly disclose that he is gay, but that he felt the acknowledgement could help others.

“I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me,” Cook wrote in the essay Thursday.

The executive said that “being gay has given me a deeper understanding of what it means to be in the minority and provided a window into the challenges that people in other minority groups deal with every day.”

There are no other publicly gay CEOs of major companies. United Therapeutics Corp. CEO Martine Rothblatt, who was born male and is now female, has been open about her transgender status.

Story compiled with information from Associated Press.