5000 Apple Employees and Their Families Celebrate San Francisco Gay Pride Festival

Image credit: NOAH BERGER, Reuters

A total of 5000 Apple employees and their families marched in San Francisco’s Gay Pride parade today, which also had CEO Tim Cook in attendance, showing his support, noting “inclusion inspires innovation”:

Congrats to 5000 Apple employees/families who attended today’s Pride parade.Inclusion inspires innovation.#applepride pic.twitter.com/4DncX8F6fO

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 29, 2014

Apple’s Lisa Jackson, who manages the company’s environmental front, was also participating in the parade:

Here we go. Honored to be a banner carrier Thanks #applepride pic.twitter.com/Jtmb7Mj9KO

— Lisa P. Jackson (@lisapjackson) June 29, 2014

Apple also issued the following statement to Reuters on its participation in today’s festivities:

“Apple believes equality and diversity make us stronger, and we’re proud to support our employees and their friends and families in this weekend’s celebration,” Apple spokeswoman Michaela Wilkinson said.

The company has long showed its support for the LGBT community, as back in 2011 employees submitted their own It Gets Better Project video.

Last year, Tim Cook wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal arguing why Congress should support legislation to support and protect U.S. LGBT workers from workplace discrimination. Earlier this year, Apple urged Arizona’s Governor to overturn an anti-gay bill seen to discriminate against gays and lesbians.

Silcon Valley companies such as Facebook and Google also participated in today’s parade, but for Apple, it was the largest turnout in the company’s history, according to some employees.