Even the infamous "glass ceiling" for women in corporate America was penetrated years before Cook shattered the "gay closet" for C-suite executives. And Cook's eloquent essay, published in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, in which he came out was devoid of drama or histrionics, and had more of a "matter-of-fact" tone about it.
It wasn't just the CEO of an important corporation making this declaration; it was the head of Apple–not only the world's largest corporation but a notoriously secretive organization, which had failed to inform its shareholders of founder Steve Jobs's cancer diagnosis.
But even before Cook's announcement, he had been leading Apple into the nationwide battle for workplace equality. As HR professionals, we need to remind ourselves that 29 states still have no employment non-discrimination laws, and upwards of 50% of LBGT employees still go to great pains to hide their sexual orientation.
In invoking the inspiration of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, Cook concluded his essay: "We pave the sunlit path toward justice together, brick by brick. This is my brick."