14 DAY TRIAL // A 19-year-old girl studying at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in Massachusetts has discovered on her MacBook that Apple’s definition of gay includes the terms “foolish,” “stupid,” and “unimpressive.”
If you look up the word “gay” using the built-in Dictionary application in Apple’s Mac operating system, it churns out the usual definitions, but also a rather disturbing example of how the word can be used to describe “foolish” or “stupid” people.
Disappointing, to say the least, for a company that brags about supporting marriage equality. And even more disappointing for Becca Gorman, the teenager in question whose parents are lesbians.
“It was just insulting,” she told ABC News affiliate WCVB. “I couldn't even understand why that would be there.”
Asked whether she thought Cook himself would find this definition insulting, Becca replied, “I'm sure he did too, being [part of] a gay-friendly company.”
Apple called Becca to confirm to her that they’d received her email and that the problem would be fixed.
“They told me it's so hard to track the dictionaries they're getting sources from,” she said.
In a personal writeup on gay rights published in the Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “As we see it, embracing people’s individuality is a matter of basic human dignity and civil rights. It also turns out to be great for the creativity that drives our business.”
Several paragraphs later, Cook added, “We’ve found that when people feel valued for who they are, they have the comfort and confidence to do the best work of their lives.”
Cook’s op-ed was an effort to encourage the U.S. Senate to vote in favor of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act. The next day, Senators voted in favor of the bill, but the law in question has yet to be passed.