A MEMORIAL in Russia to the late Apple founder Steve Jobs has been removed after his successor Tim Cook confirmed that he is gay.

    Cook discussed his sexuality in an essay for Bloomberg Businessweek last week, in which he said being gay was “among the greatest gifts God has given me.” Prior to his public coming out, Cook had topped gay magazine Out’s Power 50 ranking for three years straight, and spoke publicly of overcoming discrimination.

    The tech billionaire, who succeeded Jobs as Apple CEO in 2011, was congratulated widely on his coming out by both tech and political figures in the United States and other Western countries.

    One place where Cook’s sexuality has not been so warmly embraced is Russia, which was criticized by LGBT and human rights groups last year when it passed a law banning the spread of so-called “gay propaganda” to children.

    Russian lawmaker Vitaly Milonov, principle sponsor of the anti-gay bill, called for Cook to be banned from entering the country.

    “What could he bring us? The Ebola virus, AIDS, gonorrhea? They all have unseemly ties over there,” Milonov told the FlashNord website. “Ban him for life.”

    On Friday, an iPhone-shaped monument honoring the memory of Jobs was taken down at a St. Petersburg university campus.

    The monument, which was erected in 2011 by a group of companies called Zefs, was removed out of fear it would contravene the gay propaganda law.

    “After Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly called for sodomy, the monument was dismantled pursuant to Russian federal law on the protection of children from information that promotes the denial of traditional family values,” Zefs said.

    Maxim Dolgopolov, head of Zefs, added that “sin should not become the norm. There is nothing to do in Russia for those who intend to violate our laws.”

    Apple is hugely popular in Russia, with the company doubling iPhone sales there last year to 1.57 million units. A number of prominent anti-gay politicians and media figures are iPhone or iPad users, including Kremlin propaganda chief Dmitry Kiselyov, who once said that gay people’s hearts should be burned rather than used for organ donation. Kiselyov uses a pink iPhone 5C.

    Whether Russia’s homophobic iPhone users will switch brands remains to be seen.

    (SD-Agencies)