This piece from truthdig speaks for itself.
"Coming out of the closet is the most important act in a gay person’s life.
It is a gift to those who are already exposed to prejudice and an example to those who live secret, frightened lives.
Harvey Milk is best remembered as a pioneering gay politician who was murdered in San Francisco City Hall, but there is another reason to hold him in memory: his most important cause, getting people to come out.
“I would like to see every gay doctor come out, every gay lawyer, every gay architect come out, stand up and let [the] world know,” he said in 1977. “That would do more to end prejudice overnight than anybody would imagine. I urge them to do that, urge them to come out. Only that way will we start to achieve our rights.”
Add to that list “CEO of the most valuable corporation in the world.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook came out this week, not to his friends and colleagues, who already knew, but to the rest of us.
“I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me,” Cook wrote.
In the majority of U.S. states, that statement could cost Tim Cook his job. That’s because, 37 years after Harvey Milk urged every doctor, lawyer and architect to come out, it is perfectly legal in most of this country to discriminate against gay people, to fire them on the basis of their sexuality.
And then there’s the rest of the world. Apple is a multinational corporation, worth about $230 billion more than Exxon and more than twice the value of GE. It does business in countries that shame, imprison and torture people for loving those of the same gender. Who knows what ripple effects Cook’s statement will have on his business, or what impact it will have in the cultural lives of those countries. Surely the easiest thing, for business reasons, would have been to stay hidden."
"Coming out of the closet is the most important act in a gay person’s life.
It is a gift to those who are already exposed to prejudice and an example to those who live secret, frightened lives.
Harvey Milk is best remembered as a pioneering gay politician who was murdered in San Francisco City Hall, but there is another reason to hold him in memory: his most important cause, getting people to come out.
“I would like to see every gay doctor come out, every gay lawyer, every gay architect come out, stand up and let [the] world know,” he said in 1977. “That would do more to end prejudice overnight than anybody would imagine. I urge them to do that, urge them to come out. Only that way will we start to achieve our rights.”
Add to that list “CEO of the most valuable corporation in the world.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook came out this week, not to his friends and colleagues, who already knew, but to the rest of us.
“I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me,” Cook wrote.
In the majority of U.S. states, that statement could cost Tim Cook his job. That’s because, 37 years after Harvey Milk urged every doctor, lawyer and architect to come out, it is perfectly legal in most of this country to discriminate against gay people, to fire them on the basis of their sexuality.
And then there’s the rest of the world. Apple is a multinational corporation, worth about $230 billion more than Exxon and more than twice the value of GE. It does business in countries that shame, imprison and torture people for loving those of the same gender. Who knows what ripple effects Cook’s statement will have on his business, or what impact it will have in the cultural lives of those countries. Surely the easiest thing, for business reasons, would have been to stay hidden."
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