I totally disagree, this is absolutely offensive. Whether Cook is gay or not is totally irrelevant. AI speculating and or discussing whether he is or isn't gay is offensive and absolutely should not be considered journalism in any respect. Either he is qualified for his job (obviously he is) or he is not.
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".
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.
Where are the ''most powerful openly straight cock of the walk'' headlines?
It's none of my business or anyone else's business who an executive's private life is or is not. Grow up is right.
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.
In a perfect world we wouldn’t, but an inevitable part of civil rights movements is to point out accomplishments from groups of people previously deemed undesirable or incapable in some way by the majority of society.
In 2009 we commended Sonia Sotomayor for being the first Hispanic and third woman appointed to the Supreme Court Justice. I don’t think the average person would think pointing this out this achievement is a horrible thing and it’s surely an inspiration to many that classify themselves as such.
Unless there is some “outing” or it’s a a falsified statement I see no problem with someone making this general point to point out the success of a person who belongs to a group trying to achieve social acceptance.
Your comment and others like it are what we can hope for in the future. IOW, these rights should seem so natural that the idea of pointing them out would make us scratch our heads as to why it’s being stated in the first place.
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by REC
It's true. We do live in a country where gays don't always have basic rights, like the right to marry. This is our country. It should be talked about.
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.
There is outrage because Appleinsider is an Apple gadget site, this crap isn't about gadgets at all. Frankly it is diving into peoples personal lives for no good reason. It is objectionable in the same way that diving into Steves health issues is objectionable. Of course many don't see the ugliness of that either, to which we can credit to being brought up in leftist households.
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.
Quote:
Appleinsider simply isn't the place for this. If one of the secretaries at Apple had a history of attending gang bangs would you want it detailed here? Seriously? For some it might be very interesting but let's face it there are plenty of sites on the net for that.
You see being gay as analogous to promiscuity or group sex. How charmingly 19th century of you.
Quote:
Except Obama has none of those qualities. That has nothing to do with hate it is just a reflection of reality. What is sad here is that you use this forum and pathetic thread to try to elevate this man beyond what he is capable of. I'm not sure if you are trying to pull focus away from the issue at hand or what. As to the issue at hand what does gay sex have to do with Apple gadgets? That in a nut shell is the problem with this thread.
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?
Quote:
By definition they are defective, just like anybody else with a birth defect. The great shame here is that any sort of birth defect associated with sex gets classed differently than any other birth defect. There is no justification for that. You can't go around treating people as leapers simple because of an accident of birth.
Yep. You're completely off the rails. Fortunately, you belong to shrinking minority of hard core bigots.
Quote:
As to censorship that is BS in this case. Most of us come to AI to read up on Apple hardware, software and rumors. It isn't the place to discuss anybodies sex life, in that regard AI has failed miserably to excercise editorial control. Frankly this whole thread should be pulled because it pollutes the forum with crap that has nothing to do with Appleinsiders mission.
Where has there been a discussion of anyone's sex life, except in your fevered imagination?
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.
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.
This article is at once kind of heartwarming, and totally unnecessary. I really don't care about the sexuality of the Apple executives. It's not a relevant topic. There are plenty of gay executives out there. What are the implications? None.
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.
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.
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.
"I'm proud of the fact that I'm gay and that some of the guys who work with me are gay," he added, "but at the end of the day all that matters is that we put stuff out there that's high-quality and that makes people happy."
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.
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.
By definition they are defective, just like anybody else with a birth defect. The great shame here is that any sort of birth defect associated with sex gets classed differently than any other birth defect. There is no justification for that. You can't go around treating people as leapers simple because of an accident of birth.
I see... whatever intelligence we thought you had just vaporised.
Well I'm a gay man, and no, I'm not offended by the headline, but yes, it is a silly story... Of course Tim Cook is gay. who cares? and furthermore, did anyone really not know that already?
..
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?
Comments
I'm done with this site. MacNN has better news and gets its info faster than you guys anyway.
I totally disagree, this is absolutely offensive. Whether Cook is gay or not is totally irrelevant. AI speculating and or discussing whether he is or isn't gay is offensive and absolutely should not be considered journalism in any respect. Either he is qualified for his job (obviously he is) or he is not.
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".
I couldn't agree more.
Where are the ''most powerful openly straight cock of the walk'' headlines?
It's none of my business or anyone else's business who an executive's private life is or is not. Grow up is right.
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.
In a perfect world we wouldn’t, but an inevitable part of civil rights movements is to point out accomplishments from groups of people previously deemed undesirable or incapable in some way by the majority of society.
In 2009 we commended Sonia Sotomayor for being the first Hispanic and third woman appointed to the Supreme Court Justice. I don’t think the average person would think pointing this out this achievement is a horrible thing and it’s surely an inspiration to many that classify themselves as such.
Unless there is some “outing” or it’s a a falsified statement I see no problem with someone making this general point to point out the success of a person who belongs to a group trying to achieve social acceptance.
Your comment and others like it are what we can hope for in the future. IOW, these rights should seem so natural that the idea of pointing them out would make us scratch our heads as to why it’s being stated in the first place.
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.
It's true. We do live in a country where gays don't always have basic rights, like the right to marry. This is our country. It should be talked about.
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...
There is outrage because Appleinsider is an Apple gadget site, this crap isn't about gadgets at all. Frankly it is diving into peoples personal lives for no good reason. It is objectionable in the same way that diving into Steves health issues is objectionable. Of course many don't see the ugliness of that either, to which we can credit to being brought up in leftist households.
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.
Appleinsider simply isn't the place for this. If one of the secretaries at Apple had a history of attending gang bangs would you want it detailed here? Seriously? For some it might be very interesting but let's face it there are plenty of sites on the net for that.
You see being gay as analogous to promiscuity or group sex. How charmingly 19th century of you.
Except Obama has none of those qualities. That has nothing to do with hate it is just a reflection of reality. What is sad here is that you use this forum and pathetic thread to try to elevate this man beyond what he is capable of. I'm not sure if you are trying to pull focus away from the issue at hand or what. As to the issue at hand what does gay sex have to do with Apple gadgets? That in a nut shell is the problem with this thread.
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?
By definition they are defective, just like anybody else with a birth defect. The great shame here is that any sort of birth defect associated with sex gets classed differently than any other birth defect. There is no justification for that. You can't go around treating people as leapers simple because of an accident of birth.
Yep. You're completely off the rails. Fortunately, you belong to shrinking minority of hard core bigots.
As to censorship that is BS in this case. Most of us come to AI to read up on Apple hardware, software and rumors. It isn't the place to discuss anybodies sex life, in that regard AI has failed miserably to excercise editorial control. Frankly this whole thread should be pulled because it pollutes the forum with crap that has nothing to do with Appleinsiders mission.
Where has there been a discussion of anyone's sex life, except in your fevered imagination?
did anyone really not know that already?
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?
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.
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.
This article is at once kind of heartwarming, and totally unnecessary. I really don't care about the sexuality of the Apple executives. It's not a relevant topic. There are plenty of gay executives out there. What are the implications? None.
Agree.
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.
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.
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.
"I'm proud of the fact that I'm gay and that some of the guys who work with me are gay," he added, "but at the end of the day all that matters is that we put stuff out there that's high-quality and that makes people happy."
Gay means Happy and Happy means Gay!
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.
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.
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.
By definition they are defective, just like anybody else with a birth defect. The great shame here is that any sort of birth defect associated with sex gets classed differently than any other birth defect. There is no justification for that. You can't go around treating people as leapers simple because of an accident of birth.
I see... whatever intelligence we thought you had just vaporised.
Well I'm a gay man, and no, I'm not offended by the headline, but yes, it is a silly story... Of course Tim Cook is gay. who cares? and furthermore, did anyone really not know that already?
..
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?