A CNBC segment of "Squawk on the Street" aired on Friday morning and involved a very awkward topic. Simon Hobbs, a co-host of the show, "accidentally" outed Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, as openly gay. He told Jim Steward, "I think Tim Cook is fairly open about the fact that he's gay at the head of Apple, isn't he?"
Hobbs, a New York Times journalist, discussed during this segment one of his columns that talked about John Browne. Browne is the former CEO of BP, a known giant in the oil industry. Browne has a book about himself, entitled "The Glass Closet: Why Coming Out is Good for Business", and it puts into detail Browne's life experiences as a closeted executive.
Stewart, on the other hand, was stunned by Hobbs' sudden question. He responded, after an extremely long period of awkward silence, "I don't want to comment on anybody who might or might not be. I'm not going to out anybody. I called a lot of people and no one at any major company would allow their names to be used."
To date, Cook has kept mum about this sensitive issue, and he has not released a response to confirm or deny Hobbs' allegations regarding his sexual orientation.
However, Cook has been very supportive of the LGBT community. In fact, Out Magazine named him as the most powerful LGBT person for 2013. Cook gave a speech at the United Nations after he got his achievement award from Auburn University, his alma mater. He talked about how he grew up in Alabama and how his visions of burning crosses have affected his life.
He said, "Since these early days, I have seen and have experienced many types of discrimination, and all of them were rooted in the fear of people that were different than the majority." Cook continued his speech to specifically defend gay rights. He stated, "Today, we have an opportunity to continue our progress with respect to race and also to embrace immigration reform and eliminate discrimination of the GLBT [sic] community."
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