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Apple in Full Support of Naming Alabama Anti-Discrimination Bill After Tim Cook

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Alabama Representative Patricia Todd is introducing a new anti-discrimination bill that will share a name with Apple CEO Tim Cook. Called the Tim Cook Economic Development Act, the forthcoming bill aims to put an end to work-place discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Todd was inspired to name the bill in honor of Tim Cook after he condemned discrimination against LGBT employees in Alabama in October after being inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor. "As a state, we took too long to step toward equality," Cook said during his acceptance speech. "We were too slow on equality for African-Americans. We were too slow on interracial marriage, and we are still too slow on equality for the LGBT community."

Just days after giving that speech in Alabama, Tim Cook came out as gay himself in an inspiring letter published by Bloomberg Businessweek. In the announcement, Cook said that publicly sharing his sexuality was done in an effort to "bring comfort to anyone who feels alone" and to "inspire people who insist on their equality."

Earlier this week, a report from BuzzFeed suggested Apple was initially hesitant to have Tim Cook's name associated with the bill. Todd originally announced her plan to add Tim Cook's moniker to the act just days after he came out as gay, but after a phone call from an Apple employee who "expressed concern" over the usage of Cook's name, she agreed not to use the Apple CEO's name after all.
"I did get a call from Apple asking me not to name it the Tim Cook bill," she told BuzzFeed News. "They don't want their corporation tied up in the political battle. I understand where they are coming from. I quickly said I would not name it after him."
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After BuzzFeed published details on Todd's conversation with Apple, the company reversed course and released a statement saying Cook was "honored" to hear about the bill being named after him.
Tim was honored to hear that State Rep. Todd wanted to name an antidiscrimination bill after him, and we're sorry if there was any miscommunication about it," Apple spokesperson Kristin Huguet wrote in an email. "We have a long history of support for LGBT rights and we hope every state will embrace workplace equality for all.
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Todd also reportedly received a call from Apple's legal head Bruce Sewell, who "apologized profusely" and said there had been an Apple representative trying to protect the company from controversy. He went on to tell Todd "I'm here to assure you we support this 100 percent," and he said Cook was glad to see his speech in Alabama had inspired action.

Even before coming out as gay, Tim Cook has had a long history of supporting equality. In 2013, he lectured on equality at his alma mater Auburn University, and during that same year, both he and Apple publicly supported the Employment Nondiscrimination Act and released a statement in support of Supreme Court gay marriage rulings. Earlier this year, Cook and Apple marched in support of the LGBT community during the 44th annual Pride parade in San Francisco, and the company has a dedicated section about diversity on its website highlighting its deep commitment to equality and human rights.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple in Full Support of Naming Alabama Anti-Discrimination Bill After Tim Cook
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/12/04/apple-supports-alabama-bill-tim-cook/
TsunamiTheClown

TsunamiTheClown

macrumors 6502a
Apr 28, 2011
571
12
Fiery+Cross+Reef
Am I missing something here? Tim Cook tells other corporations 'Don't discriminate against gays and lesbians and fill-in-the-blank' and he gets legislation named after him.?.?.

Has he been the subject of this kind of employment discrimination himself? Or is he just the hypothetical 'potential discrimination' case because he has said that he is gay?

If he has a history of overcoming this kind of discrimination then fine, honor the guy, otherwise i think this is a touch silly as any other bglt employer or employee could also be the recipient of such a vacuous honor.

For the record Tsunami is going on the record saying 'Don't discriminate against clowns.'
 
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T

theheadguy

macrumors 65816
Apr 26, 2005
1,156
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california
There is now no subject in which Apple will not do a 180 in an instant.

TsunamiTheClown said:
Am I missing something here? Tim Cook tells other corporations 'Don't discriminate against gays' and he gets legislation named after him.?.?. Has he been the subject of this kind of employment discrimination himself? Or is he just the hypothetical 'potential discrimination' case because he has said that he is gay? If he has a history of overcoming this kind of discrimination then fine, honor the guy, otherwise i think this is a touch silly as any other gay employer or employee could also be the recipient of such a vacuous honor.
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Exactly. Apple is FAR from being the first company to support equality. But, it's popular to honor them now and they are more than happy to ride the wave.
 
j26

j26

macrumors 68000
Mar 30, 2005
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Paddyland
I just do not understand why a piece of legislation is named after a person at all.
 
Rogifan

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Nov 14, 2011
24,124
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theheadguy said:
There is now no subject in which Apple will not do a 180 on in an instant.
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Pretty much. The first response was the correct one. The fact that Apple did a 180 is pretty pathetic. No Apple doesn't need to have it's name attached to a bill in a state legislature. This is one time where I think Steve Jobs wouldn't have is entirely appropriate.
 
W

Waxhead138

macrumors 6502
May 18, 2012
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The Can You Just Opened....Well Done!

LostMyiPhone said:
I can only imagine what kind of bills/laws they would have named after Steve Jobs.
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...Well, for starters, lets try

The "I can Steal it but you better not steal it from Me" Act aka, the

"Gotcha Xerox, But Damn you Bill Gates!" Act.
 
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Swift

Swift

macrumors 68000
Feb 18, 2003
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Yes, Tsunami

You are missing something here.

Social progress.

Apple has always been a leader in the question of discriminating against gays and lesbians. They recognized couples regardless of gender. The ascendancy of Tim Cook kind of proves it.

Now, somebody in Alabama is trying to get a bill passed to make discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation illegal. Good luck with that, but hope springs eternal.

Now, if you have deeper issues with that, maybe you could tell us what they are.
 
sjinsjca

sjinsjca

macrumors 68020
Oct 30, 2008
2,238
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Waxhead138 said:
...Well, for starters, lets try

"The I can Steal it but you better not steal it from Me" Act aka, the

"Gotcha Xerox, But Damn you Bill Gates!" Act.
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Now now. Xerox was amply compensated for its disclosures, as per the agreement they agreed-to.

Given Xerox's abysmal record of commercializing its own innovations, there's a good likelihood that the mouse and GUI would've withered and blown away if kept within the hallowed halls of PARC, anyway.
 
TsunamiTheClown

TsunamiTheClown

macrumors 6502a
Apr 28, 2011
571
12
Fiery+Cross+Reef
Swift said:
You are missing something here.

Social progress.

Apple has always been a leader in the question of discriminating against gays and lesbians. They recognized couples regardless of gender. The ascendancy of Tim Cook kind of proves it.

Now, somebody in Alabama is trying to get a bill passed to make discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation illegal. Good luck with that, but hope springs eternal.

Now, if you have deeper issues with that, maybe you could tell us what they are.
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For the record the only thing i support in the way of workplace discrimination is discriminating on the basis of productivity. At Tsunami Industries if you don't work you don't get paid. Thats about it as far as my deeper issues with discrimination.

But I do have a problem with political posturing couched as "Social Progress" i suppose. But hey, there may be a really inspiring backstory to why someone would choose Tim Cook as the person for bestowing this 'honor' upon (other than the fact that he is an Alabaman who is also openly gay, of whom i am confident there are many).
 
W

Waxhead138

macrumors 6502
May 18, 2012
473
546
sjinsjca said:
Now now. Xerox was amply compensated for its disclosures, as per the agreement they agreed-to.

Given Xerox's abysmal record of commercializing its own innovations, there's a good likelihood that the mouse and GUI would've withered and blown away if kept within the hallowed halls of PARC, anyway.
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True. Point is tho you know Steve smelled blood in the water and went for it, then got mad when someone else had the same opportunistic instincts.

And, to confess....my limited future predicting abilities, about as good as Miss Cleo's....tell me this thread will need a little humor to balance it out some :)
 
scbn

scbn

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Jul 25, 2010
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This is good for Tim. But is it also good for Apple , the company?
 
peterdevries

peterdevries

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Feb 22, 2008
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theheadguy said:
Exactly. Apple is FAR from being the first company to support equality. But, it's popular to honor them now and they are more than happy to ride the wave.
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There is the cynical way of looking at it, and there is the objective way of looking at it: the most discussed and scrutinized company on the planet promotes equality and in doing so serves as an example for many other companies. why is that necessarily a bad thing?
 
Candlelight

Candlelight

macrumors 6502a
Oct 12, 2011
837
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New Zealand
I would love them to honor Bill Gates' charity work by making a bill showing how he managed to 'break down the fences' by putting doorways in.

They could call it the Gates Bill Gates Bill.
 
W

Waxhead138

macrumors 6502
May 18, 2012
473
546
Rogifan said:
Pretty much. The first response was the correct one. The fact that Apple did a 180 is pretty pathetic. No Apple doesn't need to have it's name attached to a bill in a state legislature. This is one time where I think Steve Jobs wouldn't have is entirely appropriate.
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I've got mixed feelings on this one. While they definitley don't *need* to have their name attached to a bill, the are supporting a good idea, and can't really hurt themselves in any political fashion given the subject.

I don't know if Apple did a 180 here, but maybe just Tim, and not even really a 180 if you look at it from a personal point of view and not a companys' point of view. A company spokesperson, or whoever made the initial call, did their job spot on getting his name removed. Purely guessing it sounds like Tim heard the story / subject matter and personally decided to do this. Afterall, it's his name, not the company's name.
 
casperes1996

casperes1996

macrumors 604
Jan 26, 2014
7,418
5,518
Horsens, Denmark
scbn said:
This is good for Tim. But is it also good for Apple , the company?
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If it could've gone under the radar entirely, perhaps that'd have been the best for Apple, but after the story had hid the daylight, Apple pretty much had to revert their policy, and "see it as an honour". Not doing so would almost act as them saying they're against the bill in some way, which'd contradict the message they're trying to send.
 
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