Apple's Tim Cook profiled as "most powerful gay man in Silicon Valley" - Page 2

Apple's leadership is of profound interest to anyone interested in the company. Everyone interested in Apple is very interested in who might one day replace Jobs. You seem hung up on one aspect of the profile on Cook, and from your comments this appears to be because you hate gays. That's your problem, not one for AI, Apple, Cook, or gays.



I would certainly hope so, but I don't understand the connection between wild sex at Apple and Cook being profiled as next in line at Apple.


Only a bigot could say that the president who stood up to nothing but months of lock step partisan obstructionism by nearly every individual Republican, and still passed item after item in his promised agenda, is not strong and competent. Even if you are politically opposed to Obama's interests, you can't deny that he has done more, in more difficult environment, that any recent president. Bush had the Democrats fall in line under war hysteria (minor stated accomplishments, easy circumstances), Clinton accomplished little of his stated agenda (minor stated accomplishments, difficult circumstances).

If Obama hadn't accomplished so much, the current Republican majority in the House wouldn't be symbolically voting to undo things they lack the power to actually undo, just to be ineffectual and weak in a pretense of being strong and powerful.


Referring to people you have been taught to hate as "defective" is simply ignorant. Nobody with an education considers people who fall outside of religiously defined gender role stereotypes to be "defective." I would say your opinion is defective. And how exactly should one "treat lepers"? With disgust and hate, like the middle ages, or with medical care, like liberal intellectuals would? (And I assume you mean leper, as in someone with leprosy, as opposed to "leapers," somebody who jumps.)


There is no discussion of Cook's "sex life" in the article. It's pretty commonly known among people who are gay who other gays are. It's only a source of shame and fear among people who cultivate shame and fear in their communities. Humans are naturally interested in other's gender and role identity, which is why there's nothing shameful or scary about Valentine's Day. It's not about "sex life," it's about identity and relationships, very positive things.

I imagine you're rather old, but it's not too late to let go of hate and prejudice and simply accept other people for who they are.

Wow. Even if he is gay, how is that news? And the fact that nobody really knows if he is gay means you're spreading rumors for absolutely no reason.

I'm done with this site. MacNN has better news and gets its info faster than you guys anyway.

AI isn't speculating that Tim Cook is gay, they are just reporting that Valleywag is profiling him as such.

As for those offended by AI "outing" him, I remind you that AI is not reporting him as being gay Valleywag is. And seeing that there has been no official confirmation from Cook himself he is hardly "out".

You neglected to include if he had an innie or outie. Does he sleep with his whiskers in or out. How does he like his coffee? Shoddy reporting.

I don't give a damn if he's gay, and the fact that is being reported is inappropiate. I think I and just about everyone else on the board only care about his ability to lead Apple if Steve can't come back.

We don't need a headline for "the most powerful openly straight cock of the walk" because that's a) not outside the norm enough to be interesting, but more more importantly, b) we all know that's Steve Jobs.

I mean come one, Jobs is pure billionaire pussy magnet, and yet he has a hot wife that he's faithfully married to and happy with. Can't get more straight up cock of the walk than that.

In our country, we don't even allow gays to marry, let alone have basic equal rights in terms of taxes and other benefits. So that in itself makes being gay a newsworthy story.

Also, Cook lives in the Bay Area of San Francisco. He's not exactly afraid of being outed. Maybe if he were an actor practicing Scientology, or living in Omaha, but no, not running Apple.

The Sotomayor analogy only works because she identifies herself as Hispanic. She embraces it, vs. say, Tiger Woods, who invented the whole Cablinasian thing to try to prevent people from boxing him in to a mold he didn't choose to be identified with.


I live in a flyover state where gays do have the right to marry. (Note to the outside world: the state didn't implode, straight families like mine didn't automatically self destruct and, after the first week or two, it became a total non issue.)

That said, there is enough of a stigma and enough discrimination that you still don't "out" someone who hasn't already self-identified themselves as gay. It just isn't done.

How odd is it that someone from the middle of the country would have to explain that to left coasters...

I just reread the article to see what is so offensive. In 11 paragraphs about Cook, only 4 make any mention of being gay and how that relates to Apple.

Being gay isn't a health issue, nor some kind of tabloid shame. Cook isn't "out" in the sense that he declares his sexual orientation when he walks in the room, but it's not a big secret.


You see being gay as analogous to promiscuity or group sex. How charmingly 19th century of you.


Hmmm, I think I'm starting to get the big picture. And how is being gay equal to talking about gay sex? Steve Jobs is straight, does that mean every time he gets mentioned Apple Insider is indulging in talk about heterosexual sex?


Yep. You're completely off the rails. Fortunately, you belong to shrinking minority of hard core bigots.


Where has there been a discussion of anyone's sex life, except in your fevered imagination?

Well I didn't, but I don't care and it's not my business.

A little piece of the Apple love inside of me just died. Guess it's time to find something else to love in the tech world.

What, they linked to this article at Homophobia.com?

But he's not just someone from the Bay Area anymore. He has to do business in places like Omaha (where there is a good Apple store OBTW) and across the entire world where they sometimes take a far dimmer view of gays than they do in Omaha.

Does anyone think that Fox News wouldn't lead every Apple story with "the gay CEO of Apple" (or whatever) from here on out? Why polarize where it's not necessary or productive?

IMO, this is the insidious side of the activist community (possibly like the author of this so-called "story"). It never occurs to them that the in-your-face approach is why Prop 8 in California passed, or why Prop 19 failed.

Agree.

AI, really? Seriously? Deriving content solely from Valleywag? If you choose to write a tribute, the subject deserves much than that.

Yet for the post title, you poured time and thought into creating the perfect link honeypot. What's next? Fleet Street gossip titles like,

"Jobs Loves Liver, Hires Gay Cook"


-- bloody hell AI, break-out the smelling salts and give your head a shake.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Addendum:

As you know, the Valleywag story includes references from The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The New York Times to highlight his career CV and personal and professional attributes, yet when it comes to discussing his orientation -- the lead element of your storyline -- you chose to rely on Valleywag's crack investigative news team. It posits,


If Cook is in a long term partnership, he's kept it well hidden. Given his brutal work schedule, though, it's hard to imagine how he'd find time. Still, he's got enough experience to have developed some preferences; our tech executive source claims Cook is into Asian guys, a tidbit that prompted another tech observer, with whom we shared the item, to propose some strategic matchmaking that would pair Cook with Google hotshot Ben Ling. It's an inspired match: Perhaps the coupling could build a bridge between two corporate nemeses.


If you want to pay tribute to the man -- a stalwart senior executive retaking the reigns to an iconic and industry powerhouse, who happens to be gay (allegedly) -- then please afford him and the orientation the decency to corner your story beyond a hyperlink pointing to an unnamed, unverified, "tech executive" source.

If you're simply posting a précis of a post on another site, do you want to hinge a key adjective to the story title on an unidentified and unverified source? If so, then I'll prepare myself for more Fleet Street headlines.

Just as a point of reference, there are about as many gays around you every day as there are left handed people. (Note: not the same people, but the overall numbers are very similar.) So if you're afraid to be associated with something that might have gays involved, look to see how many left-handed people there are at the monster truck rally or death metal or country music concert or even your local church. It's about 11%, +/- whatever the fraction of a percent the statistical margin for error may be.

This does make my point about needlessly polarizing people; it is completely counterproductive: Avenged110 just made my case better than I ever could.

Gay means Happy and Happy means Gay!

I'm not sure what point you're making. On the one hand there's the idea that "outing" Mr. Cook is uncool, which, sure, although my impression is that his sexuality isn't exactly a secret. It's not like he's a deeply closeted Republican politician, or something.

But on the other hand you seem to be saying that prominent gay people should remain closeted because ambient bigotry will cause problems for their companies, which I totally disagree with. That's simply capitulating to that bigotry, and allowing it to dictate the terms of people's lives.

Knowing that Tim Cook is gay isn't "needlessly polarizing", the people who have a problem with that are needlessly polarized. It's an extremely important distinction.

Gay? Who cares?

The real story is that Steve Jobs requires that Tim Cook and Phil Schiller wear colla'd shirts. Only The Anointed One may wear the black turtleneck.

I see... whatever intelligence we thought you had just vaporised.

Well I didn't know and frankly I couldn't give a flying xxx if he or steve jobs is gay, bi or an aardvark fancier to be honest. How is one supposed to know he is gay? You not implying you can tell by looking I hope?

That would be Michael Dell.

I surely didn'tbut I don't care.

I couldn't have said it better myself. AI should be ashamed of themselves for stooping to this new low .... but you know they won't be.

If this was a story about the most powerful minority or female CEO in the US, everyone would be proud that Apple was getting this attention. (How many stories did we hear about Carly Fiorina when she took over at HP?)

This is why this story is powerful and needed, especially to many young gay kids who need good role models. Seeing one of the most successful companies have a gay man treated as an equal by Steve Jobs and the rest of the executive team is a powerful message. It also continues to breakdown stereotypes.

My only hope is he is out and this didn't 'out' him to the world against his wishes.

I said outing someone who may not want to be outed was uncool. That's true whether it's the far right doing the outing or whether it's an activist in the gay community that's doing the outing.

It was Daniel Eran Dilger's linkbait to generate page views for AI that was designed to be polarizing. And self serving. Maybe they can change their domain name to TMZInsider.com instead?

I thought that Valleywag article was reprehensible. Cook's sexuality is Cook's business and nobody else's. If he wants to come out then good for him and I'd admire his courage. The fact he hasn't is his personal decision. His outing all over the internet definitely isn't his personal decision.

Another shining example of Gawker media link bait "journalism".

A "powerful black" man or a "powerful woman" are both members of "visible minorities" and as such don't have the same "decisions" to make re: their status. They have already been "outed", as it were. A gay person may or may not want their status to be made public. That is their decision to make .... not ours. A person's sexual orientation is none of our business. It is entirely up to Mr. Cook to decide "how public" he wants to be with this. AI has shown no respect at all for his privacy and should be rightly "taken to task" for this. This is the sort of thing I would expect to see in The National Enquirer .... but not in any sort of "professional news reports.

There is a HUGE difference between censorship and a respect for an individuals privacy. I am always amazed at people like you who show no respect to others and hide their classless action in the "flag of censorship" .... as 'tho we had the "right" to discuss any one's life we wanted to. We don't.

As a group, yes ... but AI took it upon themselves to talk about an individual without even asking permission from said individual .... at least, afaik.

I'm a gay web developer and I work for one of the most recognizable companies in the world. This article did make me pause for a second and think why does it matter if the man is gay? However you made me change my mind.

100% agree. This is so not news worthy.

I was reading your post and thinking, "wow, I can't believe I'm agreeing with you" .... then I read this: By definition they are defective....
Surely you can't be serious with this statement. Tell me, are redheads "defective"? ... Blondes? .... blues eyes? .... short people ..... 7' tall NBA hopefuls?. Just what exactly, in your eyes, makes for a "non defective" person. Maybe you should rethink your posititon .... or did I just not understand what you were trying to say?

Just because it wasn't slanderous doesn't mean it wasn't potentially embarrassing. There is such a thing as being concerned for a person's right to privacy.

Your idea of "offensive" might be different if the story was about you, no?

It must be a really slow news day that AI post crap like that. First of all. This is just gossip to create FUD. And even if it would be true. WHO CARES?!

//Rob

If you want editorial control go to China you ignorant bigot. You are the one who was born with a brain defect.

Ahhh, so AI is not "starting the rumor" ..... they're just "spreading it". In that case .... all is well ..... NOT!

Not odd at all ..... common sense rules. ....

This is actually the most relevant post in this entire topic if you ask me.

I have a few gay friends, and personally I feel like a gay CEO should be a total non-issue. However, many people (and countries) don't see it that way. In big parts of the world, homophily is still a very big taboo.
And many of those areas where it's taboo are important growth markets for Apple.

I wonder how this will affect Apple's growth in areas such as China and the Middle East. I really cannot imagine those Saudi oil sheikhs buying $2000 laptops from a company that has a "sinfull" CEO. Maybe they'll even ban Apple products... I really hope I'm wrong though, as to me, Tim Cook seems like an extremely capable guy that would be a very worthy successor for Steve Jobs, and I wish him all the best in running this company.

And I, together with many of the people here, hope that one day being gay will be a complete non-issue all over the world.

I've been looking for an article:

"Steve Jobs, the most powerful heterosexual man in Silicon Valley"

But... I didn't find it...