Just ten years ago, there were no openly LGBTQ Fortune 500 CEOs. That wouldn’t change until Apple CEO Tim Cook came out as gay in October 2014.
“I don’t consider myself an activist, but I realize how much I’ve benefited from the sacrifice of others,” Cook penned in an essay for Bloomberg, published just eight months before the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage a constitutional right. Cook, who is infamously guarded about his personal life, hadn’t previously disclosed his sexuality publicly. “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.”
