Source: Fox News
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday was at the center of a new episode in the battle between defenders of religious freedom and defenders of gay and lesbian rights in the United States, the latter of which he supported in an op-ed in The Washington Post.

Cook warned that "something very dangerous" is happening around the country, namely that "a wave of legislation, introduced in more than two dozen states, would allow people to discriminate against their neighbors."
He cited the bill enacted in Indiana last week "that drew a national outcry and one passed in Arkansas," which say that individuals can cite their personal religious beliefs to refuse service to a customer - for instance, a gay, lesbian or transsexual person - or resist a state nondiscrimination law.
Indiana's Republican governor, Mike Pence, last Thursday signed the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which gives businesses in the state carte blanche to prohibit entry to gay couples in the name of freedom of religious belief.
The Apple CEO, who last year publicly announced his homosexuality, warned that other states are working on even harsher laws, such as one in Texas that would allow salary or pension payments to be withdrawn from officials who issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples "even if the Supreme Court strikes down Texas' marriage ban later this year."
He said that there are more than 100 bills in the works or on the books around the country that would "enshrine discrimination in state law."
"These bills rationalize injustice by pretending to defend something many of us hold dear. They go against the very principles our nation was founded on, and they have the potential to undo decades of progress toward greater equality," Cook said.
He said that the U.S. business community realized long ago that discrimination in any form is "bad for business."
"That's why, on behalf of Apple, I'm standing up to oppose this new wave of legislation - wherever it emerges. I'm writing in the hopes that many more will join this movement," Cook said.
At the beginning of March, large companies including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft sent to the Supreme Court a friend-of-the-court brief expressing their support for the legalization of same-sex marriage.
The document, which another 374 companies have supported, explains how the legalization of same-sex marriage on the federal level would create business opportunities.
The nation's highest court is scheduled next month to hear the oral arguments on the legality of state laws prohibiting same-sex unions.
The nine justices have refused several times recently to rule on the question, the latest instance being last October, when they refused to hear appeals against the resolutions that allow marriage between same-sex couples in five states.
With the high court's refusal to hear, same-sex marriage is now legal in a total of 36 states and the District of Columbia.
Cook asked people all around the country to join the movements opposing these laws, since "This isn't a political issue. It isn't a religious issue. This is about how we treat each other as human beings."