7 ms·

>There are undoubtedly many people who will no longer purchase Apple products because of this I disagree. First, I think it was widely assumed that he was gay

>There are undoubtedly many people who will no longer purchase Apple products because of this I disagree. First, I think it was widely assumed that he was gay, and if it wasn't, he was accidentally outed during a live TV broadcast a few months ago by a CNBC reporter [1]. Second, the people that think this way probably already avoid Apple products, as both Tim Cook and Apple have been vocal on gay rights for quite some time. Finally, the one thing that these kinds of people hate more than those that disagree with their worldview is being personally inconvenienced. If they're already invested in the Apple ecosystem and are used to the iOS UX, they're going to keep paying Tim Cook for a new device every year. [1] http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000288253 http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000288253 - about one minute in

nailer 12y ago
Wow. That doesn't sound like an accident - you don't say someone "is fairly open about being gay" unless you're damn sure they are. What an unpleasant person.
- jacquesm 12y ago
  That's a mistake but it should be a career limiting mistake nonetheless.
  - emodendroket 12y ago
    To me this is like saying if you've ever written a bug into production software it should be career-limiting.
    - jacquesm 12y ago
      Disclosures of that nature are not at the same order as writing bugs into production software.
      - deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
      - emodendroket 12y ago
        I disagree, which is why I chose that analogy.
      - crazypyro 12y ago
        Except a bug in production software can disclose that same thing, except on a much more massive scale than a human? Almost any mistake a human can make can be translated into software and expanded by many magnitudes with a software bug.
      - bashinator 12y ago
        True - writing bugs into production software can be far, far worse. For example, leaking patient health information from a medical database.
    - Cthulhu_ 12y ago
      A more apt comparison would be to accidentally reveal a hidden feature of your application to the public.
      - emodendroket 12y ago
        It's apt because it's a small mistake with potentially bad consequences that is just an inevitable result of the work.
- emodendroket 12y ago
  If your job was to blather on air day after day for however many hours you'd probably say a couple dumb things too. Everyone has "known" Tim Cook was gay forever so it's not a hard mistake to make.
  - aragot 12y ago
    How did everyone know? Or even, guess? I assume there are a few factors which generally correlate with being gay, such as never being seen dating a girl or trying to stick with gay fashions?
    - danielweber 12y ago
      I knew because NPR told me. I knew he was gay before I knew it was supposed to be a secret, so if I were on that panel I would have said pretty much the same thing.
    - emodendroket 12y ago
      Well it was all over the media; I'm assuming through reports of people close to him?
    - majani 12y ago
      Gawker makes sure to mention it every time they cover him. I trusted Gawker on that one since Nick Denton is gay as well
      - mkr-hn 12y ago
        Then you'd think he would be better about not treating someone as fully out when it's not clear he's out to more than friends and family.
    - arrrg 12y ago
      Hey, how awesome of you to drag stereotypes into this … If you had read the article it should become quite clear to you why quite a few people knew and some people even wrote about it. Since in general journalists will avoid to publish the sexual orientation of someone unless that person made public statements about it, most journalists just didn’t write about it. (I think that’s exactly the right guideline to follow. It is awesome when people come out to help others who are struggling, but this is still a personal decision and I don’t think journalists should make that decision for people. There should never be an obligation to come out.)
- danielweber 12y ago
  Maybe he listened to NPR two weeks earlier and heard Melissa Block say on the air that Tim Cook was openly gay. http://www.npr.org/2014/06/13/321778926/letters-the-world-cup-and-the-stanley-cup http://www.npr.org/2014/06/13/321778926/letters-the-world-cu...
  - mkr-hn 12y ago
    Outed is not the same as out.
    - danielweber 12y ago
      If you heard the regular personality on NPR's "Here And Now" say that someone was openly gay, you would assume he was out. That's where I learned it. I didn't know for a few weeks later that it was supposed to be a secret we didn't say.
      - mkr-hn 12y ago
        I would wonder why I'd never heard it right from the only person qualified to say, find that he hadn't said it, and doubt the credibility of the person who reported it as true. But I also know what it's like to be afraid of being outed to people you're not out to, so maybe it's different if you don't have that fear.
    - dllthomas 12y ago
      I'd typically interpret "openly" as implying "out", though.
yitchelle 12y ago
It is interesting to read this. Not that I have any evidence, but I was under the impression that Apple was already more attractive to the gay community than the other companies...I would not be surprise if this will increase this section of their target market.
- tallanvor 12y ago
  Apple, Google, and Microsoft all rank very high as inclusive companies, along with many of the big tech companies. When it comes to buying phones and other gadgets, from my circle of friends, the gay community is pretty much aligned with the general population in terms of the mix of choices. While we're happy to see a CEO be openly gay, it's not going to change our buying habits. I guess I could be wrong, but I know I certainly won't to exchange my Xperia Z3 for an iPhone just because Cook came out.
driverdan 12y ago
> I think it was widely assumed that he was gay By who, Apple fanboys? Your average person probably doesn't even know who is Apple's current CEO let alone that he's gay.
- downandout 12y ago
  Tech media mainly.
  - Aloha 12y ago
    Not just tech media - anyone who follows GLBT politics and rights assumed it too.
- newscracker 12y ago
  There were at least a couple of places where it was mentioned earlier this year (and it was kind of "known" in the past too). Two links from April 2014: Out Magazine - http://www.out.com/out-exclusives/power-50/2014/04/15/what-does-lgbt-power-look-2014 http://www.out.com/out-exclusives/power-50/2014/04/15/what-d... HuffPo (about the same) - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/27/out-power-50-most-powerful-gay-people_n_1458934.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/27/out-power-50-most-p...
  - notahacker 12y ago
    You'd have to be a weirdly obsessive anti-gay to spend your spare time perusing Out magazine or lists of most influential homosexuals, though I suppose such people do exist and you'd also have to be pretty weirdly obsessive to refrain from purchasing from a corporation on account of the sexual orientation of a member of its management team. I'm gay, politically aware, and posting on HN on a MacBook and had no idea, though frankly I also don't browse LGBT power lists.
    - praneshp 12y ago
      I don't think so. I'm not the poster you were replying to, I don't care if he's gay, and I don't go read such lists either. The CNBC 'outing' came up either on my facebook trends or on HN, that's the only two ways I get news these days.
smtddr 12y ago
I had no idea whatsoever. I've never seen this clip before and that was totally an accidental outed. I actually can think of one co-worker who might have some difficulty with this news today...
acjohnson55 12y ago
I think the issue was that although Tim Cook was not secretive about being gay, he had never publicly spoken about it. The CNBC guy got a lot of flak, but as many mentioned, there are several other places where Cook was identified as a gay man before that clip, so the backlash was a little unfair. It can be awkward to differentiate between public knowledge and "open secrets" when someone hasn't officially come out.

nailer 12y ago

Wow. That doesn't sound like an accident - you don't say someone "is fairly open about being gay" unless you're damn sure they are. What an unpleasant person.

jacquesm 12y ago
That's a mistake but it should be a career limiting mistake nonetheless.
- emodendroket 12y ago
  To me this is like saying if you've ever written a bug into production software it should be career-limiting.
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    Disclosures of that nature are not at the same order as writing bugs into production software.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
    - emodendroket 12y ago
      I disagree, which is why I chose that analogy.
    - crazypyro 12y ago
      Except a bug in production software can disclose that same thing, except on a much more massive scale than a human? Almost any mistake a human can make can be translated into software and expanded by many magnitudes with a software bug.
    - bashinator 12y ago
      True - writing bugs into production software can be far, far worse. For example, leaking patient health information from a medical database.
  - Cthulhu_ 12y ago
    A more apt comparison would be to accidentally reveal a hidden feature of your application to the public.
    - emodendroket 12y ago
      It's apt because it's a small mistake with potentially bad consequences that is just an inevitable result of the work.
emodendroket 12y ago
If your job was to blather on air day after day for however many hours you'd probably say a couple dumb things too. Everyone has "known" Tim Cook was gay forever so it's not a hard mistake to make.
- aragot 12y ago
  How did everyone know? Or even, guess? I assume there are a few factors which generally correlate with being gay, such as never being seen dating a girl or trying to stick with gay fashions?
  - danielweber 12y ago
    I knew because NPR told me. I knew he was gay before I knew it was supposed to be a secret, so if I were on that panel I would have said pretty much the same thing.
  - emodendroket 12y ago
    Well it was all over the media; I'm assuming through reports of people close to him?
  - majani 12y ago
    Gawker makes sure to mention it every time they cover him. I trusted Gawker on that one since Nick Denton is gay as well
    - mkr-hn 12y ago
      Then you'd think he would be better about not treating someone as fully out when it's not clear he's out to more than friends and family.
  - arrrg 12y ago
    Hey, how awesome of you to drag stereotypes into this … If you had read the article it should become quite clear to you why quite a few people knew and some people even wrote about it. Since in general journalists will avoid to publish the sexual orientation of someone unless that person made public statements about it, most journalists just didn’t write about it. (I think that’s exactly the right guideline to follow. It is awesome when people come out to help others who are struggling, but this is still a personal decision and I don’t think journalists should make that decision for people. There should never be an obligation to come out.)
danielweber 12y ago
Maybe he listened to NPR two weeks earlier and heard Melissa Block say on the air that Tim Cook was openly gay. http://www.npr.org/2014/06/13/321778926/letters-the-world-cup-and-the-stanley-cup http://www.npr.org/2014/06/13/321778926/letters-the-world-cu...
- mkr-hn 12y ago
  Outed is not the same as out.
  - danielweber 12y ago
    If you heard the regular personality on NPR's "Here And Now" say that someone was openly gay, you would assume he was out. That's where I learned it. I didn't know for a few weeks later that it was supposed to be a secret we didn't say.
    - mkr-hn 12y ago
      I would wonder why I'd never heard it right from the only person qualified to say, find that he hadn't said it, and doubt the credibility of the person who reported it as true. But I also know what it's like to be afraid of being outed to people you're not out to, so maybe it's different if you don't have that fear.
  - dllthomas 12y ago
    I'd typically interpret "openly" as implying "out", though.

yitchelle 12y ago

It is interesting to read this. Not that I have any evidence, but I was under the impression that Apple was already more attractive to the gay community than the other companies...I would not be surprise if this will increase this section of their target market.

tallanvor 12y ago
Apple, Google, and Microsoft all rank very high as inclusive companies, along with many of the big tech companies. When it comes to buying phones and other gadgets, from my circle of friends, the gay community is pretty much aligned with the general population in terms of the mix of choices. While we're happy to see a CEO be openly gay, it's not going to change our buying habits. I guess I could be wrong, but I know I certainly won't to exchange my Xperia Z3 for an iPhone just because Cook came out.

driverdan 12y ago

> I think it was widely assumed that he was gay By who, Apple fanboys? Your average person probably doesn't even know who is Apple's current CEO let alone that he's gay.

downandout 12y ago
Tech media mainly.
- Aloha 12y ago
  Not just tech media - anyone who follows GLBT politics and rights assumed it too.
newscracker 12y ago
There were at least a couple of places where it was mentioned earlier this year (and it was kind of "known" in the past too). Two links from April 2014: Out Magazine - http://www.out.com/out-exclusives/power-50/2014/04/15/what-does-lgbt-power-look-2014 http://www.out.com/out-exclusives/power-50/2014/04/15/what-d... HuffPo (about the same) - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/27/out-power-50-most-powerful-gay-people_n_1458934.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/27/out-power-50-most-p...
- notahacker 12y ago
  You'd have to be a weirdly obsessive anti-gay to spend your spare time perusing Out magazine or lists of most influential homosexuals, though I suppose such people do exist and you'd also have to be pretty weirdly obsessive to refrain from purchasing from a corporation on account of the sexual orientation of a member of its management team. I'm gay, politically aware, and posting on HN on a MacBook and had no idea, though frankly I also don't browse LGBT power lists.
  - praneshp 12y ago
    I don't think so. I'm not the poster you were replying to, I don't care if he's gay, and I don't go read such lists either. The CNBC 'outing' came up either on my facebook trends or on HN, that's the only two ways I get news these days.

smtddr 12y ago

I had no idea whatsoever. I've never seen this clip before and that was totally an accidental outed. I actually can think of one co-worker who might have some difficulty with this news today...

acjohnson55 12y ago

I think the issue was that although Tim Cook was not secretive about being gay, he had never publicly spoken about it. The CNBC guy got a lot of flak, but as many mentioned, there are several other places where Cook was identified as a gay man before that clip, so the backlash was a little unfair. It can be awkward to differentiate between public knowledge and "open secrets" when someone hasn't officially come out.