How Apple CEO Tim Cook Reacted to Supreme Court's Same-Sex Marriage Decision

— -- Apple CEO Tim Cook, who became the most high-profile business leader in the world to come out as gay, shared his joy today at a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gay couples have the constitutional right to marry by invoking some famous words from the late Steve Jobs.

Cook, who publicly came out last October as gay in an essay written for Bloomberg Businessweek, said "being gay has given me a deeper understanding of what it means to be in the minority and provided a window into the challenges that people in other minority groups deal with every day."

"I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me," he wrote.

For a company that burst onto the personal computing market in the Steve Jobs era with the slogan "think different," Apple employees have also heard another call to action from Cook: "Inclusion inspires innovation."

"All around the world, our team at Apple is united in the belief that being different makes us better," Cook wrote when Apple's diversity report was released last year. "We know that each generation has a responsibility to build upon the gains of the past, expanding the rights and freedoms we enjoy to the many who are still striving for justice."

In a statement to ABC News, an Apple representative said "We applaud the Supreme Court and everyone who worked so hard in the years leading up to today's historic decision."

"This is a momentous step forward for equality and fundamental human rights in the United States," the statement said. "We could not be happier for our employees, customers and people all over America who now have the right to marry the one they love."