Apple CEO Tim Cook Speaks Out On LGBT Rights
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Apple CEO Tim Cook was in Montgomery today to be inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor, a group of just 100 Alabamians recognized for their services and accomplishments.
But the conversation turned toward gay rights when Cook took the podium.
Cook wasn’t exactly in Alabama to discuss Civil Rights but he used his platform to do just that in a room full of law makers, the Governor and other people of influence.
Apple CEO and Auburn alumnus Tim Cook is one of eight new members now part of the Alabama Academy of Honor. While in Montgomery to be recognized for the honor, Cook used his time at the podium to talk about what he says is the state’s slow progression on Civil Rights.
“Too slow on equality for African Americans, too slow on interracial marriage, which was only legalized 14 years ago,” Cook said. “And still too slow on equality for the LGBT community. Under the law, citizens of Alabama can still be fired based on their sexual orientation.”
After the ceremony, Cook made his way over to the Civil Rights Memorial with Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen.
“I think everyone knows that Alabama has been notoriously slow on the Civil Rights front,” Cohen says. “The real question is whether it’s going to continue that way. Are we finally going to be a leader in the Civil Rights cause or are we always going to be behind?”
LGBT activists in the state say they want Alabama to be a leader on this issue. Susan Watson is the Executive Director of Alabama’s American Civil Liberties Union. She says Alabama’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriage could hurt the state’s economy.
” If you think about it, if we want businesses to come to our state, we need to be a welcoming state,” she says.
But some say it’ll take some time before Alabama is ready to embrace gay rights.
“It’s just the south,” says Montgomery resident Jesse Cofty. “We have a hard time accepting it. It’s something new.”
“Southern people are just proud of what they believe and they’re not going to change just because someone says change,” says resident Adam Russell.
Alabama News Network also received a statement from the Human Rights Campaign. saying “Municipal and state lawmakers should consider Mr. Cook’s words a call to action. It is essential, crucial and imperative that we work to pass non-discrimination protections for LGBT people in housing, public accommodations and the workplace.”
