World’s most powerful LGBT people named in ‘Power 50’ list
By Ben Kelly
For the second year in a row, Apple CEO Tim Cook has topped OUT magazine’s ‘Power 50’ list, which weighs up the most powerful LGBTI people in American life and culture.
OUT identified Cook’s stand off with the FBI over the unlocking of the San Bernardino phones as an examples of the power he holds, and also commended the 55-year-old for speaking out about his private life in support of younger people struggling with their sexuality.
“It became so clear to me that kids were getting basically discriminated against, kids were even being disclaimed by their own parents, and that I needed to do something,” he told The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in September 2015.
The majority of the Top 10 was made up of TV personalities, including news anchors Rachel Maddow and Anderson Cooper, talk show hosts Ellen DeGeneres and Andy Cohen, and American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy. Reality TV star and former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner was also included.
Cook was also joined in the Top 10 by other business names like Mary Kay Henry, the international president of SEIU and Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal.
The list also includes singer-songwriter Sia, who has been open about relationships with men and women in the past.
You can read the full Power 50 list over at OUT.
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