Apple’s Tim Cook is gay? That’s old news in Silicon Valley

Tim Cook has announced that he is gay.

In a first-person essay Thursday, Apple's chief executive addressed his sexual orientation publicly for the first time.

"Let me be clear: I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me," he wrote in an essay titled "Tim Cook Speaks Up," which was published in Bloomberg Businessweek.

Cook said that he had been open about his sexual orientation for years, and that plenty of colleagues at Apple have known that he's gay.

He said there wasn't a particular reason he chose to come out now, but noted that he thought about the question posed by Martin Luther King Jr., 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," he said.

In Silicon Valley, Cook's sexual orientation doesn't come as much of a surprise. The 53-year-old had been widely rumored to be gay for years, but the tech world largely paid little attention to such chatter.

In June, a CNBC television host was criticized for unintentionally outing Cook. During a roundtable discussion on air, co-host Simon Hobbs said: "I think Tim Cook is fairly open about the fact he's gay at the head of Apple, isn't he?"

The gaffe drew an uncomfortable silence from the other hosts, before Hobbs said, "Oh, dear, was that an error? I thought he was open about it."

Cook, who has been guarded about his privacy, said he would "like to hold on to a small amount of it." But he also knew coming forward could make a difference to those facing personal challenges.

"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," he said, "then it's worth the trade-off with my own privacy."

In the buttoned-up business world, Cook's admission is notable: He is the only openly gay CEO in the Fortune 500, according to the Huffington Post.