How Apple CEO Tim Cook coming out as gay will help the LGBT community

By: Pavitra Sampath | | Published: October 30, 2014 6:00 pm

Being gay or a lesbian is a tough revelation to make to a society that shuns anything that is different. This fight is even more relevant in India as we still have section 377 that deems gay and lesbian sex as illegal and astonishingly has the power to sentence a person life imprisonment. The apathy of our legal system and its need to change with the times was highlighted in the recent episode of Satyamev Jayate where Aamir Khan talked to people from the LGBT community about the discrimination and ill treatment they face on a daily basis. With the recent news about the Bangalore techie who has been arrested for being gay on the behest of his wife, this revelation comes at a good time. A time when we need to wake up and change. Also Read - Ganesh Chaturthi 2020: 4 reasons an eco-friendly Ganesha is good for you

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While we, as a country need to wake and evolve with the rest of the world, a recent piece of news has taken the world by storm. Apple CEO Tim Cook came out as being gay in a powerful yet humble essay he wrote for Bloomberg’s Bussinessweek. In his essay the CEO says that while he never hid the fact that he was gay from the people around him, he never talked about it in the press. But his statement was not simply to stir up things and was meant to be an attempt to support the LGBT community. He says, ‘ While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven t publicly acknowledged it either, until now. So let me be clear: I m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.’ Adding that even though he is a private person he believes in the words of Dr Martin Luther King, who said: ‘ Life s most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others? and therefore decided that it was time he did not allow his need for privacy stop him from doing ‘something important’. Also Read - Lesbian, gay, bisexual youth at increased risk of substance abuse

Tim Cook also goes on to say that being gay had allowed him to understand what it felt like being a minority, provided him with a window into the challenges that people in other minority groups had to deal with everyday. Apart from that he also adds that if hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay helped someone struggling to come to terms with who he/she is, bring comfort to someone who is alone, inspire people to talk about and insist on equality then it is worth giving up his privacy.

Recently the LGBT in India has been trying to do away with the archaic law which was brought in during British colonization. So far we have seen a number of celebrities like Celina Jaitly and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan take a public stance supporting gay rights. We are sure this kind of support will go a long way in helping people in the community break free.

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Published : October 30, 2014 6:00 pm

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