Out Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an
interview with The Washington Post published Saturday that he
sought our Anderson Cooper's advice on coming out gay.
Cook said that he “thought that the
way [Cooper] handled his announcement was really classy.”
“I was getting advice from people who
I thought were really great people who really deeply thought about
it,” he said.
Cook said that he met with the CNN
anchor “multiple” times.
Cook and Cooper were unofficially out –
neither denied rumors about their sexuality – prior to coming out
and both came out in writing; Cooper in a 2012 email exchange with
Andrew Sullivan and Cook in a 2014 Bloomberg Business Week
op-ed.
Cook's editorial echoed similar
sentiments offered by Cooper, such as putting work before personal
life and wanting to make a difference for kids who are struggling
with their sexuality.
“They thought they couldn't achieve
anything,” Cook
told the Post
about messages he's received from hundreds of young people.
“They couldn't do anything. They were seeing the national
discourse around it and feeling isolated and depressed. And I just
thought – I've got to do something. … I thought it would
minimally say you can do pretty good in this world and be gay.”