It’s a new gay debate
It was a well-intentioned comment but a TV news host outed Apple CEO Tim Cook during a live segment. Basically Simon Hobbs referenced Cook during a segment about gay CEOs at major companies.
Hobbs said, “I think Tim Cook is open about the fact he’s gay at the head of Apple, isn’t he?” Obviously there was silence because the answer is no.
There was a debate online and I thought that the two sides were interesting: one was blasting Hobbs for outing somebody but the second argument was that the LGBT crowd shouldn’t be so sensitive about its sexuality anymore.
The latter didn’t surprise me because people agreed that it’s no big deal if someone is gay. It was more fascinating that people were so blasé that they seemed frustrated someone who is gay or lesbian would still feel unwelcome or discriminated against.
Wrote one commenter: “I wish gay people would get this into them, in Western countries “nobody really cares anymore” being gay at present is one of the last of societies (sic) problems.”
For once we aren’t having a debate about if it’s OK to be gay or if marriage should be for everybody. The challenging conversation now is that LGBT communities shouldn’t feel unwelcome because it is so commonplace that there is nothing wrong with the individuals.
The bottom line is that’s how a person feels. Whether or not you agree with their feelings is irrelevant.
While many people look at pregnancy as exciting and joyous news to share and jump at the chance to tell everyone they know, some folks might find it hard because they could be viewed by others as unable to be a parent. Regardless, if people don’t feel comfortable blasting the news on Facebook to hundreds of strangers online, they are within their right to keep things hush-hush.
Either way, sensitivity about anyone’s life and situation should be respected. At the end of the day, it seemed like Hobbs made an honest mistake. And really, had most of you heard of Tim Cook before this, anyway? Will you boycott Apple because he’s gay?
As long as he’s accepted by people that are close to him, it doesn’t really matter.
