Apple CEO Tim Cook has made a stand for GLBT rights while being inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honour.
Citing famous southerner, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in his Alabama Academy of Honor induction speech this week, Cook says he has “long promised” himself “to never be silent” in his belief in “our basic tenets of equality and human rights.”
“Although there has been much progress, our state and our nation still have a long way to go before Dr. King’s dream is a reality,” he told the crowd. “As a state we took too long to take steps toward equality. And once we began, our progress was too slow.
“Too slow on equality for African-Americans. Too slow on interracial marriage…and still too slow on equality for the LGBT community,” said Cook.
“I could never understand why some within our state and nation resisted basic principles of human dignity [which] were so opposite the values I had learned growing up in Robertsdale, Ala., in a family that was rich in love and respect,” he said on Monday. “Decades later, I still don’t understand.”
Although there is significant progress being made across the United States, employers in Alabama are still able to fire workers on the basis of their sexuality., a point noted by Cook in his speech.
This is not the first time Cook and Apple have spoken about GLBT rights. CEO Tim Cook spoke in support of GLBT rights when accepting an International Quality of Life Awards at is alma mater, Auburn University last December.
Apple had a large presence at the recent San Francisco Pride Parade, and produced a video about the experience. “Inclusion inspires innovation,” the spot concluded.
Apple have also previously donated to campaigns fighting marriage equality bans. In 2008, the company donated $100,000 to the effort to defeat Proposition 8, a California ballot initiative to ban gay marriage, a initiative which was successful, but was later struck down by the Supreme Court.
Article | Levi Joule
