Here s some tech-industry reaction to today s Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, an issue Silicon Valley has long been vocal about.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, who himself made history when he came out last year — becoming the first openly gay chief executive of a Fortune 500 company — tweeted almost immediately after the 5-4 decision:
Today marks a victory for equality, perseverance and love.
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.
Cook has also spoken out about anti-gay laws in states such as Indiana, and donated to help fund a gay-rights initiative in his home state of Alabama. In the past, Apple has boasted about being one of the first companies to offer benefits to employees same-sex partners.
Do a Google search for gay marriage today and you ll see atop the search results a line of multi-hued couples holding hands, and a rainbow-colored heart besides. Google has been a longtime advocate for gay marriage. For example, co-founder Sergey Brin spoke out against California s Proposition 8 in a 2008 blog post; he and co-founder Larry Page donated to oppose the measure; the company launched a Legalize Love campaign in 2012; it joined other tech companies in opposing the federal Defense of Marriage Act, along with Prop. 8, in 2013.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted on the social network this morning: I m so happy for all of my friends and everyone in our community who can finally celebrate their love and be recognized as equal couples under the law. His post was accompanied by two U.S. maps showing membership in LGBT Facebook groups — a sparsely dotted map from 2008, and a 2015 map with splotches of dots across the country.
Many other tech companies and executives took to Twitter to add their voices, including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, YouTube, Oracle, Yelp and more — some of them using the #LoveWins hashtag, which President Obama s Twitter account tweeted this morning.
The Beatles said it best: All you need is love.
Above: Screenshot from Google search for gay marriage.
