After Tim Cook was elevated to CEO of
Apple on Wednesday, gay blogs lit up with the news that he's one of
their own. Cook took over the reigns of Apple after the abrupt
resignation of Steve Jobs, who will now serve as chairman of the
board.
(Related: Tim
Cook is world's most powerful gay man, but who is he?)
But while gay glossy Out earlier
this year named Cook the most powerful gay person in America, the
all-business Cook has yet to acknowledge he's gay.
Reaction on gay sites has been mostly
positive. But for the few mainstream media outlets reporting the
news, results have been mixed.
Felix Salmon, a reporter for Reuters,
felt the need to defend his reporting on the subject, saying it would
be irresponsible for the media to avoid the issue, which is the same
as reporting that Cook is straight.
“[I]gnoring it is the
problem,” Salmon
wrote. “As commenter Hamranhansenetc said on my original post,
'what you mean by 'ignoring Tim Cook's sexuality' is 'pretending he
is straight.'' It's rude to do that. And skirting the issue of
Cook's sexuality only encourages and exacerbates that problem. As
Hamran continues (you should really read the whole comment, it's
great), 'In the larger sense, it does not matter that Tim Cook is
gay and not straight. However, it does matter when the media pretend
Tim Cook is straight and not gay. And that is what we are talking
about here.'”
Writing at The Atlantic,
Nicholas Jackson said Cook needed to own his sexuality if he's to be
crowned the most powerful gay man in tech.
“[H]e won't be a role model for the
LGBT community until he confirms the rumors and comes out of the
glass closet he is assumed to be living in,” Jackson
wrote.
But, we have to add, doesn't Cook's
silence on the issue after appearing on the cover of a nationally
circulated magazine speak volumes? For us, that was as courageous a
step as any.