CORPORATE CLOSET - CEO Opens the Door

"Apple’s CEO helps open the corporate closet" PBS NewsHour 10/30/2014

Excerpt

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  Celebrities, athletes and politicians have increasingly gone public about their sexual orientation.  But the corporate closet has mostly remained closed.

Today, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, opened that door a but more, declaring in an essay for Bloomberg Businessweek he is gay.

“While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven’t publicly acknowledged it either until now,” he wrote.  “So let me be clear.  I’m proud to be gay and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.”

Cook becomes the most prominent business leader to come out, but what difference will it make?

Kara Swisher, who has long covered the tech industry and is co-executive editor of the tech news website re/code, joins me now.

So, Kara, in this day and age, why does what Tim Cook had to say matter?

KARA SWISHER, re/code:  Well, he is the most prominent executive in tech, and he’s running the most valuable company in the world.

And so he has a lot of prominence, and this is a big deal for him to come out and say that.  And the fact that no Fortune 500 executive has done this is a milestone.

GWEN IFILL:  So, why now?  Tell us about Tim Cook.

KARA SWISHER:  I don’t think there was an occasion.  He didn’t just decide, like, wake up this morning.

This is something — he’s been out among his friends, as he wrote, but he had never acknowledged it in public.  And people have been talking about it in Silicon Valley a lot.  There was a lot of hubbub a couple of months ago when a CNBC exchange discussed it.  Everybody knows he’s gay and stuff like that.

And I think he just wanted — he’s been moving slowly towards it.  He’s been making — he appeared at the Gay Pride Festival here in San Francisco this year.  He made a speech just recently about gay and lesbian rights related to Alabama, where here’s from.

So he’s been moving towards this very clearly.  And I think probably he just woke up and said enough.  I will just acknowledge it and say it and it’s not a big deal.  And me holding back probably makes it more of a big deal.