Human Rights Campaign (HRC) gave its Visibility Award to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc. (right), this past weekend at their annual dinner gala in Washington, D.C.
Cook, who was hired personally by none other than tech god Steve Jobs, has been with Apple since 1998, and took over as CEO in 2011, shortly before Jobs died due to complications from cancer. Cook publicly came out as gay in 2014, the first CEO of a Fortune 500 company to do so.
Cook’s speech, like so much in politics these days, took a bit of artistic license with the “facts”: for instance, he praises the work of HRC President Chad Griffin while listing the major LGBT accomplishments of recent years, including the Supreme Court decision for marriage equality. Slow down there, Cookie. That big win was not really a result of HRC, which is primarily involved in legislative matters; that victory was fought and won in the judicial system, after years of work by organizations such as ACLU and Lambda Legal, as well as Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders—a.k.a. GLAD, which had one of its lawyers argue the actual case on the floor of the Supreme Court. Although HRC did invent the red and pink equal signs that people posted all over Facebook. And they are cute, so thanks to them for that.
Cook’s speech was otherwise lovely, sincere and humble, sprinkled with delicious bits of activist poetry, such as “Together, we will pave the sunlit path to justice.” Imagine working for Apple and getting emails from him.
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Cook mentioned the most significant aspect to his choice to be publicly out: the LGBT glass ceiling, and how people may presume they will encounter discrimination so they may hold themselves back, rather than risk fighting for success. “People need to hear that being gay is not a limitation,” he said. “People need to hear that being gay doesn’t restrict your options in life. People need to hear you can be gay or transgender, and be whatever else you want to in life.” This includes being a zillionaire CEO of one of the world’s most beloved brands. Not too shabby.
Watch Cook’s speech here:
Alexander R. Rodriguez
Says a man who does business with countries that KILL gay people. 1% queen in an ivory tower….
Brian
Tim Cook may deserve a visibility award but he also presides over an exploitative company which makes money in countries that have extremely homophobic and oppressive regimes. I question his overall morality.
Glücklich
Oh that’s nice. Congrats to him.
I personally haven’t encountered a glass ceiling but I know they’re there for lots of folks who aren’t straight white men under 40.
There was this Queerty post aggregating “Whispers” about being gay at work
http://www.queerty.com/real-struggles-of-being-gay-at-work-are-revealed-on-whisper-20150125
but has anyone felt they’ve hit a glass ceiling at work because of their sexuality?
Christopher Leonard
hrc only cares about hrc. the cheque clears you get an award.
Glücklich
@Brian:
Then don’t buy their shit or invest in their stock. More for me.
Alexander R. Rodriguez
He’ll bankroll the HRC and the Dems but not spend his money on gay teen homeless…..whateva…
Giancarlo85
I may have to agree with Brian on this one, but China isn’t homophobic… it is repressive for sure. Still, I have more issues with Apple and their labor practices. Foxconn uses forced labor it is said.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30532463
Extremely poor treatment, low pay and dangerous working conditions. And in some cases, forced labor. I’d have to pass. But since HRC is controlled by corporate money I’m not surprised.
Glücklich
“Extremely poor treatment, low pay and dangerous working conditions. And in some cases, forced labor.”
Sounds like BofA.
Bisexual-Transwoman
@Christopher Leonard: Yup, they do not really actually help LGBT people.
Giancarlo85
@Alexander R. Rodriguez: And your republican party is helping in what way? In what way are conservatives helping homeless gay teens? I don’t like Apple or Tim Cook… but, your argument is preposterous. You are dishonest to the core.
Republicans haven’t done shit to help homeless people. They only create more poverty. Republicans are the reason why poverty has increased and gay youth get kicked out on the street. So fuck your political party.
@Glücklich: Irrelevant.
Cam
What a shock, HRC gives award to large corporate donor.
So in other words, business as usual.
Glücklich
Jesus! Bitch bitch bitch.
All the more reason to donate strictly to museums and Rec & Parks.
Lot of armchair development associates up in here. So easy to tell others how to donate their money.
Cam
@Glücklich:
No, the issue is, a lot of us havent forgotten that HRC not only went to multiple couples suing for marriage, telling them not to because the time wasn’t right, and tried to speak against the fight against Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
But that they then told LGBT’s to sit down and shut up and not try to push for rights while Obama was president, AND LASTLY, when another group organized a march for gay rights, HRC then spent far more time attacking that group, and people like Dan Choi for going on TV and advocating for rights, then they did actually pushing for rights themselves.
NEXT they came out AGAINST the lawsuit that ended up striking down DOMA, but when the suit saw some success, they then offered to join it and were told to basically “Go To Hell” by the lawyers on it. The Eddie Windsor case and the Prop 8 cases knocked out DOMA, HRC fought them, then tried to take credit.
So attacked anybody else moving on gay rights such as Dan Choi, then tried to take credit when those others succeeded, then tried to rewrite history with books like the one on Prop 8 that all critics rightly attacked as revisionist.
All the while having a 50 million dollar budget that nobody can seem to account for.
Sorry that some of us have memories that go back further than a few months.
Glücklich
@Cam:
Don’t apologize. Too many other things on my plate to pay more than zero attention to HRC.
Cam
@Glücklich:
LOL Got it
Giancarlo85
@Cam: Exactly why I stopped donating to HRC. Huge overhead, little accountability and corporate control. I am a leftist… and I am concerned about corporate overreach in our community. The real heroes are being left out in the cold.