Apple CEO Tim Cook today broke his silence to announce that, yes, he is gay.

"While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven't publicly acknowledged it either, until now," he said in an editorial penned for Bloomberg Businessweek. "So let me be clear: I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me."

A private man running one of the most scrutinized companies on the globe, Cook cited Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who once 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," Cook wrote.

"I don't consider myself an activist, but I realize how much I've benefited from the sacrifice of others," he continued. "So 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, then it's worth the trade-off with my own privacy."

Cook said his Apple colleagues have long known about his sexuality, "and it doesn't seem to make a difference in the way they treat me." But he acknowledged that Apple is "a company that loves creativity and innovation and knows it can only flourish when you embrace people's differences. Not everyone is so lucky."

In his essay, Cook noted that a lot has changed in his lifetime, most notably the growing acceptance of marriage equality. Still, certain states allow employers to fire people, or landlords to evict tenants, based solely on their sexual orientation, he said, so there's more work to be done.

Those same topics peppered Cook's acceptance speech during his induction into the Alabama Academy of Honor this week: He challenged his home state to do more to protect the rights of its lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.

Though Cook does not consider himself an activist, Apple has voiced its support for a workplace equality bill in Congress and marriage equality in California, and spoke up when Arizona passed a discriminatory bill targeting the gay community, Cook said.