A Russian politician says Apple CEO Tim Cook ‘should be banned’ from entering the country after he came out as gay for the first time.
Anti LGBT campaigner Vitaly Milonov reportedly suggested that head of the electronics giant could bring ‘the Ebola virus, Aids or gonorrhea’, drawing on his stereotypes of homosexuals, DailyMail reports.
According to FlashNord, the city legislator from St Petersburg said: ‘what could he [Cook] bring us? The Ebola virus, Aids, gonorrhea? They all have unseemly ties over there. Ban him for life.’
Mr Cook made the announcement on Thursday, declaring his sexual orientation is one of the ‘greatest gifts God has given me’.
The 53-year-old, said he had been open with many people about his sexuality for years but wanted to maintain a level of privacy in the public sphere.
However, in a first-person article for BloombergBusinessweek, he said he hopes coming out will inspire people to insist on their right to equality – and that is ‘worth the trade-off with my own privacy’.
The declaration makes Mr Cook the highest-profile business CEO to have come out as being gay. Writing in Businessweek Mr Cook wrote: ‘Let me be clear: I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.
‘Being gay has given me a deeper understanding of what it means to be in the minority and provided a window into the challenges that people in other minority groups deal with every day.
‘It’s made me more empathetic, which has led to a richer life.’
