Apple helped celebrate the LGBTQ community over the weekend by marching in San Fransisco’s annual Pride parade. Company CEO Tim Cook’s photo on Twitter shows what looks like hundreds of Apple employees marching and waving rainbow flags—and wearing the special limited edition Apple Watch rainbow watch bands the company gave to participants.
Mr. Cook shared his photo saying, “Happy Pride to everyone who turned out this weekend to celebrate!”
Happy Pride to everyone who turned out this weekend to celebrate! #applepride #pride2016 pic.twitter.com/3GZlc9s6bl
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 26, 2016
As for the awesome rainbow watchbands Apple gave its employees, good luck getting one for yourself. The bands were limited edition gifts for staff who participated in the parade and so far there isn’t any indication the company plans to sell them to the public.
Reddit user Sakusuhon shared a photo of the band so we can all see what we missed, and if you look close in Mr. Cook’s photo you can see people wearing them.
Apple posted videos of its Pride parade activities in 2014 and 2015, so there’s a chance we’ll get a new video this year, too.
I have no problem with the personal views of the CEO of a large company. The problem arises when that individual uses the power of the large company to support a specific political agenda such as Tim Cook is doing.
Tim Cook has the right, as do all americans, to personally support the LBGT movement, but please keep your personal politics out of Apple’s business practices. We see this in Apple’s creating the rainbow Apple Watch bands given to the employees show will attend the parade. Don’t forget that the LBGT only makes up possibility 4% of the population in this country, which means that the vast majority of your customers are not within that subculture.
Personally I do not care about the choices people make in their private life as long as those views do not negatively effect the lives of the other 96% of which I am a part. One of the things I appreciated about Steve Jobs was that he stayed politically neutral. Even though he supported Obama he did not make that fact known nationally, instead he offered to do the 2012 campaign commercials.