Throughout my professional life, I"ve tried to maintain a basic level of privacy. I come from humble roots, and I don"t seek to draw attention to myself. Apple is already one of the most closely watched companies in the world, and I like keeping the focus on our products and the incredible things our customers achieve with them. 縱觀我的職業生涯，我努力保持自己的基本隱私。我出身卑微，不希望吸引注意力。蘋果已經是全球最受關注的企業之一，我喜歡專註於產品以及客戶利用這些產品所取得的非凡成就。
At the same time, I believe deeply in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, who said: 「Life"s most persistent and urgent question is, 『What are you doing for others?』 」 I often challenge myself with that question, and I"ve come to realize that my desire for personal privacy has been holding me back from doing something more important. That"s what has led me to today. 同時，我也深信著馬丁·路德·金的那句名言：「生活中最持久而迫切的問題是——你在為他人做什麼。」我常常問自己這個問題，並明白我對個人隱私的追求一直阻礙著我做更重要的事情。
For years, I"ve been open with many people about my sexual orientation. Plenty of colleagues at Apple know I"m gay, and it doesn"t seem to make a difference in the way they treat me. Of course, I"ve had the good fortune to work at a company that loves creativity and innovation and knows it can only flourish when you embrace people"s differences. Not everyone is so lucky. 多年來，我對很多人公開了我的性取向。蘋果的許多同事都知道我是同性戀，但是他們對待我的方式似乎沒有什麼不同。當然，我很幸運能夠在一家熱愛創造力、創新，並且知道只有包容員工不同點才能蓬勃發展的公司工作。並不是每個人都能如此幸運。
While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven"t publicly acknowledged it either, until now. So let me be clear: I"m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me. 儘管我從不否認我的性取向，但是我也從未公開承認過這一點，直到今天。所以我聲明：我為自己是同性戀而自豪，我將身為同性戀視為上帝給予我的最棒的禮物。
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. It"s been tough and uncomfortable at times, but it has given me the confidence to be myself, to follow my own path, and to rise above adversity and bigotry. It"s also given me the skin of a rhinoceros, which comes in handy when you"re the CEO of Apple. 身為一名同性戀讓我更深地理解到作為少數人之一的意義，讓我知道了其他少數群體每天需要面對的挑戰。它讓我感同身受，人生更加豐富。有時候，同性戀身份讓我感到艱難和不舒適，但也給予了我自信，走自己的路，克服逆境和偏執。它還給了我一張「犀牛皮」，並在我擔任蘋果CEO後派上用場。 The world has changed so much since I was a kid. America is moving toward marriage equality, and the public figures who have bravely come out have helped change perceptions and made our culture more tolerant. Still, there are laws on the books in a majority of states that allow employers to fire people based solely on their sexual orientation. There are many places where landlords can evict tenants for being gay, or where we can be barred from visiting sick partners and sharing in their legacies. Countless people, particularly kids, face fear and abuse every day because of their sexual orientation. 和我孩提時相比，世界已經發生了太多變化。美國人正走向婚姻平等，公眾人物勇敢地站出來幫助改變人們對同性戀的看法，讓我們的文化更具包容性。然而，很多國家的法律依然允許僱主僅以性取向為由解僱員工，不少地方的房東可以驅逐同性戀房客，禁止同性戀看望生病的伴侶，繼承他們的遺產。有不計其數的人，特別是孩子，因為他們的性取向而每天面對恐懼和虐待。
I don"t consider myself an activist, but I realize how much I"ve benefited from the sacrifice of others. So if hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it"s worth the trade-off with my own privacy. 我不認為自己是一個同性戀運動活躍分子，但我意識到已經從其他人所付出的犧牲中受益匪淺。所以，如果讓人知道蘋果CEO是名同性戀就能幫助那些迷失自己性別的人，或者為那些感到孤獨的人帶去慰藉，鼓勵人們堅持平等，那麼值得我用自己的隱私去交換。
I"ll admit that this wasn"t an easy choice. Privacy remains important to me, and I"d like to hold on to a small amount of it. I"ve made Apple my life"s work, and I will continue to spend virtually all of my waking time focused on being the best CEO I can be. That"s what our employees deserve—and our customers, developers, shareholders, and supplier partners deserve it, too. Part of social progress is understanding that a person is not defined only by one"s sexuality, race, or gender. I"m an engineer, an uncle, a nature lover, a fitness nut, a son of the South, a sports fanatic, and many other things. I hope that people will respect my desire to focus on the things I"m best suited for and the work that brings me joy. 我承認，這不是一個容易的選擇。隱私對我來說依舊重要，我想要保護自己的一些隱私。我已經為蘋果的工作貢獻了一生，並繼續會將幾乎所有可用時間投入到成為最好的CEO上去。這是我們的員工應得的，也是我們的客戶、開發者、股東以及供應商合作夥伴應得的。社會的一些進步表明，我們不能僅以一個人的性取向、種族和性別來衡量這個人。我是一名工程師、別人的叔叔、自然愛好者、健身狂、美國南方人的兒子、體育迷，並且還有很多其他身份。我希望人們尊重我的意願，讓我專註於自己最適合、能夠為我帶來歡樂的工作。 The company I am so fortunate to lead has long advocated for human rights and equality for all. We"ve taken a strong stand in support of a workplace equality bill before Congress, just as we stood for marriage equality in our home state of California. And we spoke up in Arizona when that state"s legislature passed a discriminatory bill targeting the gay community. We"ll continue to fight for our values, and I believe that any CEO of this incredible company, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation, would do the same. And I will personally continue to advocate for equality for all people until my toes point up. 我很幸運能夠領導這樣一家公司，它長期以來一直主張人權和一切平等。我們在國會強烈支持職場平等法案，就像在我們的公司所在地加州支持婚姻平等一樣。當亞利桑那州立法機構通過了針對同性戀群體的歧視性法案時，我們站出來抗議。我們將繼續為我們的價值觀而奮鬥，我相信這家偉大公司的任何CEO，不論種族、性別或性取向，都會作出同樣的決定。我自己將繼續主張所有人一切平等，直到生命的終結。 When I arrive in my office each morning, I"m greeted by framed photos of Dr. King and Robert F. Kennedy. I don"t pretend that writing this puts me in their league. All it does is allow me to look at those pictures and know that I"m doing my part, however small, to help others. We pave the sunlit path toward justice together, brick by brick. This is my brick. 當我每天早上來到辦公室時，都會看到裝幀過的馬丁·路德·金和羅伯特·肯尼迪的照片。我寫下這篇文章，並非假裝讓自己與他們相提並論。我所做的是讓自己看看這些照片，提醒自己我正在以自己小小的努力去幫助別人。我們共同一磚一瓦地鋪設一條通往公平正義的路。這是我添上的一塊磚。
Tim Cook的這次公開性取向，應該可以說不僅僅對Tim個人會帶來讚揚的聲譽，也讓蘋果公司顯得更加包容和偉大，這些都是基於一個常識：想要被人尊重先要尊重別人。Tim尊重自己的取向，用自尊和對於與他相同取向人群的尊重換來大眾對同性戀人群的尊重，以及對其個人以及其所在公司的尊重。一個企業領導人的形象和價值觀往往是一個企業的代表。
最後讓我告訴你們一些真正的調侃同性戀的例子吧 《摩登家庭》的Mitchell和Cam，敏感，情緒化（Cam簡直就是個Drama Queen），有點小氣，非常膽小（經常讓Lily幫他們打蟲子老鼠），舉止女性化。 僅出現過一次的Les情侶，其中的稍微Butch的那位，在家自己造獨木舟，拒絕別人的幫助，說話動作男性化。 《逍遙法外》里的沃什——約炮達人 《The L Word》里的洛杉磯女同關係網——貴圈真亂 這些，才叫調侃，只有看到這些就衝上去嚷嚷「才不是每個gay都是這樣！你這樣說就是不尊重gay！」才叫經不起調侃吧。
