“I was public because I began to receive stories from kids who read something online that I was gay and they were going through being bullied, feeling like their family didn’t love them, being pushed out of their home, very close to suicide, things that just really pulled my heart. And I started saying, you know, I’m a private person, and so I kept me to my small circle and I started thinking that is a selfish thing to do at this point. I need to be bigger than that. I need to do something for them, and show them that you can be gay and still go on and do some big jobs in life, that there’s a path there. I did not do it for other CEOs to come out. I was the first, which is kind of shocking. I’m very proud of it. To me, it is God’s greatest gift to me.”
– Apple CEO Tim Cook to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour when asked about his sexual orientation.
God bless Tim Cook! I feel the very same way–that being gay is a tremendous gift, from God or Fate or Genetics or whatever it is that made me this way. I’ve always been very happy that I’m gay, which is quite unusual for someone my age (66). I feel the way Christopher Isherwood did–that if homosexuality didn’t exist, I’d invent it.
I‘d say having a net worth of $25 billion is right up there.