Apple's Tim Cook profiled as "most powerful gay man in Silicon Valley" - Page 5

That depends, are you absurdly rich?

Irrelevant. Completely and totally irrelevant. Nobody, and least of all Apple Insider, shout care about this.

Hetrophobe.

I think the article was well written and offers nothing negative except for a few cautionary statements that the outside world might have different perceptions about Mr. Cook.

As most folks have stated - it makes no difference to me (or most folks) whether Mr. Cook, or any of the folks that work for Apple are X, Y, Z... all we care about are the products and the incredible ways they help us to be happy and work more efficiently. Apple could be run by a bunch of monkeys (see Microsoft), but so long as the products are amazing, who works there is irrelevant.

Maybe a little humor will lighten the thread:

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zhGL_pIq8E

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQhsxr__UMo

Since you asked, Obama rode into the White House thanks to the financial blessing of wall street, and the slobbering television media. Also the unelectable opponent.

What an embarrassing joke that was.

As the thread slides completely off the table...

(... now things are starting to warm up...)

No argument here. What was up with this article, anyone else feel like it was very scattered?

The AI article (not the inked article) appeared contrived.

Over rules!!! Down with the Unders!!!!! No wait, that didn't sound right...keep your pants on people!!

I was talking about the AI part. It just didn't flow well at all, found it painful to read.

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Your missing the point. Tim Cook may or may not want his sexual orientation discussed in a public forum. That is his decision to make. If he, in an interview, wants to discuss it .... then it's ok to print the interview .... but AI did not try to "confirm" this with Tim, did not even make an attempt to find out if Tim wanted this discussion to take place in a public forum and for those reasons AI is wrong to have proceeded to spread these "personal" rumors.
Nobody is claiming that being gay is offensive ... only that "outing" someone who may not even want to be outed ..... that's the offensive part. Now do you understand? Peace.

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Lol the first video is so funny!

I am a gay, i'm as gay as a gay can be gay. I'm a gay, a gay gay!
Lol this sounded like a song!!!

Coolthere are people who will really benefit from this kind of role model.

When I released version two of YummySoup! I decided to be open about who I am and have listed my husband in the about box. He's been a great influence in the development of YummySoup! and deserves as much. So far the response has only been positive. The less we hide who we are the more acceptance we gain.

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Microsoft is also very supportive of their LGBT employees. You can find out more about this at their GLEAM (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Employees at Microsoft) page. They even put out an It Gets Better video to fight against the incidence of LGBT youth committing suicide.

More information about the It Gets Better Project can be found here.

I don't know if this is an aberration, but 7 of the first 10 articles on AI's home page are written by DED.

I hope AI has a more varied persecutive -- and doesn't become a mouthpiece/alterblog for DED.

I agree but had to laugh - the word is spelled "article" - were you maybe thing of where (Cal) Apple corporate/main campus is located?

I wasn't going to post in this thread because it is really difficult for a straight guy to have opinions about gay guys without being misunderstood, but after reading your post I'm going to offer an opinion nevertheless.

Your description above about the gay football player committing suicide and the feelings of being in a locker room of all straight guys actually reinforces my opinion. I have known several gay guys, worked with a few, and was even business partners with one for a time, until he was arrested for embezzling (not from me but from a non-profit he also work for). He is currently serving time for that. Anyway I have nothing against gay people. They tend to be funny and polite and fun to be around in both a business and social settings, but in my observation they also tend to be overly emotional and somewhat depressed. This I attribute to the rather stressful childhood that is all to common for gay people in today's society.

So if Tim Cook is not an overly emotional or depressed kind of gay guy then I suppose he would be fine for the CEO position considering his other qualifications, but if he is one of the slightly unbalanced types that I am more familiar with, then I would be a little concerned.

BTW I did not know he was gay until this thread.

People seem to have protested this isn't news quite a lot and yet we are at page 5 in 24 hours. People obviously just want to know the backstory behind the person who may end up running the company we all take an interest in. As to it being offensive to bring up sexual orientation, perhaps but not any more so than talking about Steve's wife who is obviously a cover for his secret gay relationship with Tim Cook.

The harm is done by taking issue with it, not in knowing it. He has to be one way or the other or both. Knowing if he is in a stable, healthy relationship is good for people to know.


I'd like to be more openly heterosexual but I'm not quite sure how I go about it. \

There are also many emotional, depressed, slightly unbalanced straight people.

I would hope that he can hold his tongue. Even if he doesn't agree with the lifestyle, its hard to argue the mans abilities and track record. Another big thing he has going is that Steve picked him AND the board has given its blessing. The other thing is its hard to throw stones if you live in a house that had more Vicodin and Oxycontin pass through it than your local Walgreens.

Sure, but it was my hypothesis that growing up gay in this society is a challenging thing to overcome much like growing up in a single parent family or a mixed ethnicity family or any other unusual circumstance that could affect a child's mental development adversely due to social stigma.

Right. AI isn't reporting this, they're reporting that someone else is reporting it. But the entire article is of the form Valleywag said.... They also said.... And then they said...
It's a plagiarism/summary of the Valleywag article.

Is Valleywag's article of interest to AppleInsider? Yes. It's about a high-ranking executive at the company, that makes it relevant. But did it warrant this much "ink"? I don't think so.

And I didn't get the impression that Cook's orientation is finalized. Maybe he's one of those asexual people - so wrapped up in work and other personal activities he doesn't see the need for sex?

- Jasen.

Wow. Cook is gay, which is so... not relevant. Good for him / bad for him... whatever. The iMovie guy is also gay! Whoa! I'd never have run that app if I knew that!

Equally fascinating: "Apple has also recognized the achievements of its third party developers who happened to be gay, including Steve Demeter". Uh, let me get this straight (pun intended...)... Apple hasn't actively discriminated against third party developers who happen to be gay - so what's the news here? It doesn't sound like they have a 'gayest/straightest apps in the app store' category to promote them, right?

To re-write the above more clearly: "Apple has recognized the achievements of its third party developers. Steve Detmer is gay." Nice, AI/DED.

Why not just try to come up with a full list of employees and third parties and their orientations, publish it, and then say the news is that Apple doesn't care.

Hopefully there isn't a call to take this out on AI/DED either since I think that side of the PC movement is totally overboard too, but seriously... can you maybe just not write total crap like this and post it? It's a story if Apple is doing something wrong, but them NOT discriminating and then AI posting orientations of specific people seems pretty slimy.

It reminds me of that one episode of The Office when they're trying to be culturally sensitive. (Not word for word)...Michael asks Oscar, "is there anything else you like to be called other than "Mexican"? Something less offensive?"

To which Oscar of course replies, "Why is being called Mexican offensive?". Yes, we ought to judge people solely on their merit and not their biology. But it's also offensive to simply wipe away our differences and pretend that they don't exist. To not acknowledge, for example, Barack Obama being our first African-American president is a disservice to the hardwork, blood and tears of past generations. Should we dwell on the color of his skin, or the sexual orientation of Tim Cook? No. But there's nothing wrong with acknowledging it as a sign of progress...

This is true. The repeated harassment that we face because we may not fall into line with what society has dictated (thanks mostly to religion) does add a great amount of unnecessary stress and pressure that does frequently lead to depression, and sometimes suicide.

My point, though, is that it's not really fair to just point to the statistics and say "many gays are unbalanced and depressed." But then again, I suppose that's partially your point too - it's a vicious cycle, but many will ignore the fact that they're bigoted jerkwads who are influencing the pressures that lead to these individuals becoming depressed, and potentially committing suicide.

I don't know for sure if Tim Cook is gay or not, nor does it matter. There are countless reports of Anderson Cooper being gay - he doesn't talk about it, but he also doesn't deny it either...essentially it's an open secret. In any case, it is inspiring to see successful individuals who also happen to belong to the LGBT community.

As I previously posted a link to an It Gets Better vid from Microsoft's GLEAM, I've also found some very touching vids from EA Games, Pixar Studios, Google, Facebook and others.

So, basically, I'm glad to see the many voices that are coming out in support and saying it doesn't matter if Tim's gay or not. I think that it's clear to see that Tim has an excellent track record when it comes to the business world...otherwise he wouldn't still be in his position with Apple, and Steve wouldn't be leaving him in charge if there was any doubt of his ability to manage things.

What I've learned so far:

It totally doesn't matter who is or isn't gay although mentioning it is sleazy gutter journalism along the lines of talking about someones drinking problem, not that it's wrong or anything, it's fine, I just don't want to have to think about those nasty gay bits when I think about Apple, even thought I'm perfectly fine with nasty gay bits I just don't want them shoved in my face, unless I do, but that's another story. That Apple Insider will no doubt run because they're sewer wallowing gossip mongers, which is not to say being gay has anything to do with sewers, although it does.

So in short gay is fine just please don't ever talk about it again, because it's disgusting and shameful even though it's not. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

If the article itself wasn't sleazy enough as gratuitous click-whoring, a childish comment like that from a member of the staff here just puts it over the top.

I thought MacRumors was the toilet bowl of the mac rumor sites? Looks like AI has decided to make a run for the title, and off to a demanding start no less.

Fucking pathetic.

1) This thread has been an eye opener. I never remember such bizarre Syereotypes exist outside of fictional stories until topics like this come up in a public forum.

2) Ever notce that the stories people ask "Why is this a story?" ars the ones that get the most replies, and therefore likely the most page hits? There's your answer.

3) Is the word gay to mean something not related to homosexuality allowable again? E.g.: "This article is gay."


I wonder what percentage of the US and world still think it is a health issue or choice?

I don't care who this originally came from. You are just as bad as they are for reporting this article. What business of yours or anyone else's is it as to the sexuality of an individual, and what's it got to do with the him performing his role within Apple.. If I didn't know better someone is trying to stir the shit up for Tim Cook and put doubt in his ability to run Apple long term.

Gutter press. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

If he is gay then it is better it be revealed now rather than later after becoming CEO and/or possibly being caught in some tryst which would create much more of a stir.

HITS!


That's what is has come to with this site with headlines like this. Next we'll see huge font like the sensationalist whores at the huffington post.

Fucking shameful AI

If anyone doubts this guy's ability to run a company because of the fact he might be gay, then something is seriously wrong with this world.

I still say Jonny Ive holds that title ever since the designing the iBook G3 aka "Barbie's toilet seat".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBook

Whenever a minority accomplishes something that was unthinkable not too ago it IS worth reporting. I don't think Mr Cook is being "outed" here but I doubt he feels obliged to wear is orientation on his sleeve.
We have all heard "you can grow up to be president some day" now gay teenager can believe they can grow up to be the most powerful man or woman in business.