TheCable

Tim Cook, American business executive and the CEO of Apple Inc, says he is gay and proud of it.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Cook made the revelation in an essay he published on Thursday.

“I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me,” he said.

Although he has chosen to finally come out of the closet to talk about his sexual preference, he still hopes for some privacy.

“I’ll admit that this wasn’t an easy choice; privacy remains important to me, and I’d like to hold on to a small amount of it,” he said.

Cook, who took over from Steve Jobs, in 2011, has never publicly denied his sexuality, to the extent that many already considered it public knowledge that he was gay.

Out Magazine, a popular gay and lesbian fashion, entertainment and lifestyle magazine in the US, listed him on its 2013 ‘power list’, while New York Times was castigated for erasing Cook when it wrote in May that “there is not a single openly gay chief executive at the nation’s 1,000 biggest companies”.

Cook, who before now never discussed being gay, wrote in his essay about not being an activist but he has benefited from the sacrifice of others.

He revealed he chose to speak about being gay in the hope of inspiring others who may be finding it hard to come to terms with their preference or how the society would react to what some term as not being normal.

“So if hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it’s worth the trade-off with my own privacy,” Cook said.