National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association’s Triplett questions coverage of Apple’s new “gay” CEO
Michael R. Triplett, a member of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association and the NLGJA vice president of print and new media, covers the ground today on questions about the sexual orientation of Apple’s new CEO, Tim Cook:
The announcement that Tim Cook would take over as CEO of Apple has reignited the story of whether Cook is gay. While there were longtime rumors throughout Silicon Valley that Cook was gay, it took Gawker’s Valleywag to go public with the rumor in January. …
The LGBT media – including The Advocate, Dallas Voice, Windy City Times and Queerty – quickly took Cook’s advancement at Apple as a victory for gays, with headlines saying Cook was gay. The gay angle has also made it into the mainstream press, including Daily Beast and MSNBC. Many of the stories rely on the Out and Gawker stories, although it is amusing to read he is “openly gay,” which will come apparently as a shock to Cook and the reporters who cover Apple. …
This question of whether to label Cook as “gay” is the latest permutation of when to identify people as LGBT and when not to. Cook, like Elena Kagan and Judge Vaughan Walker before him, raises the question of what is “outing” in 2011 and is there really a problem with saying someone is gay based on rumor and gossip.
The Gawker story — from January and by Ryan Tate — that forms the basis of all the independent reporting Metro Weekly can find on the question contains the following information:
After Cook was profiled as a “lifelong bachelor” and “intensely private” elsewhere, we wondered if he might be gay. We’ve since heard from two well-placed sources that this is indeed the case, and it sounds like Cook’s sexual orientation has been the topic of at least some discussion within the company. One tech executive who has spoken to multiple Apple management veterans about Cook was told executives there would support Cook if he publicly acknowledged his orientation, and even would encourage him to do so as he steps up his leadership role, but that they also had concerns about whether his coming out would impact the perception of the Apple brand.
Tate did not reply to a request from Metro Weekly for comment on his reporting.
And, though Out magazine led off its “Power 50” list this year with Cook, it provided no specific reporting on Cook and the magazine has a history of including people who are not publicly out on its lists.
In an interesting twist, out lesbian Hilary Rosen — the former head of the Recording Industry Association of America and a power player throughout American politics and the technology industry — tweeted on Wednesday a line acknowledging that Cook is gay:
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