Celebrating Pride at Charles River: LGBTQ+ Employees Share Their Stories

Miriam Rosario, Director of Regulatory Compliance Strategic Support, Wilmington

Pronouns: she, her, hers

Puerto Rican native Miriam Rosario has always been outspoken in manner and attire. Growing up in the US, she didn’t dress, walk or talk like most girls her age, and played sports as good if not better than the boys. Some did not take kindly to her athletic talent. She refused to let her peers label her. She pushed for independence from her parents and the expectations that Puerto Rican women had to marry young and have children. She later faced backlash from supervisors because she didn’t dress professionally enough in the workplace. “I was told I was better off selling T-shirts at the mall.”

But there was one area the Latina lesbian stayed silent about—her sexuality. That all changed one day when a close friend’s partner of 25 years was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. “My friend was afraid to come out at work and never felt like she could be by her lifetime partner’s side when it mattered the most,” recalls Miriam. “That frightened me, and I decided that day to come out to everyone because if my partner fell ill, I wanted to experience the same level of compassion around me that a straight person would.” She learned to be open with physicians and if she didn’t like how they treated her, she found ones that did.

Miriam joined Charles River as an Associate Director in 2018 and is now Director of Regulatory Compliance Strategic Support. During her four years with the company, she has been impressed with Charles River’s willingness to start a dialogue with its LGBTQ+ workforce. “I feel accepted, safe, needed, heard and respected,” she says. “I have been open and out at Charles River since my first day and I have never felt an ounce of discrimination from anyone.”

She won’t let up. She wants to make sure Charles River’s messages, both internally and externally, continue to push for tolerance, compassion, understanding and acceptance of those who are different. “Because silence equals death,” she says. “Those of us in Executive Management need to be seen and heard so the new hires and younger generation can see with their own eyes that our sexuality isn’t an obstacle. There is power in numbers and there is power in unity.”