Apple’s Tim Cook says he is gay. Here’s a reminder that not everyone is pleased.



“I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me,” Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in a Bloomberg Businessweek essay, discussing his sexual orientation for the first time in public.

Now that Cook has come out, some people and groups who oppose LGBT rights have spoken out about Cook.

But the reaction to his announcement has mostly stayed true to the recent environment, in which high-profile coming-out statements are followed by a relative lack of controversy — perhaps a sign that LGBT orientations are no longer a viable wedge issue in the mainstream.

“The issue may no longer help opponents of gay rights to win elections,” Richard Socarides wrote in the New Yorker. He then quoted an e-mail from New York Times congressional reporter Jeremy Peters, who said: “Most Republicans are adopting what they see as a do-no-harm strategy: Don’t advocate for same-sex marriage, but don’t do anything to actively oppose it either.”

With a nod to his famously private nature, Cook wrote: “I don’t consider myself an activist, but I realize how much I’ve benefited from the sacrifice of others. So if hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it’s worth the trade-off with my own privacy.”

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