Mark Boileau

Corporate Director, Export and Data Compliance
Teledyne Technologies Incorporated

I’m one of the lucky ones whose personal story as a member of the LGTBQ community has a happy ending, although there are still many chapters left to live and tell at a later date. I consider myself fortunate to have spent the last 23 years with my husband Kevin and have on multiple occasions reaffirmed my vows as we went through the stages of status quo evolution with a personal commitment ceremony, registered domestic partnership, civil union, and ultimately federally recognized marriage. Prior to that, it was always a subject of conversation when looking for a new and better job that crossing state lines often meant losing legal protection, something many all too often take for granted.

To that point, my story takes me to five years ago and joining Teledyne where, then and now, I know I work for an employer that treats me fairly and equally based on factors that do not involve who I love and how I live my life. I can’t say that has always been the case elsewhere having been in the work force for more than three decades. In our current work environment here at Teledyne, my “challenges” are limited to the occasional idle conversation when someone asks something like what my wife does for a living and my responding that he’s a surgical assistant. There’s that brief moment of mental processing before connecting the dots and then my good faith attempt to not make the other person feel awkward for having asked.

I recognize that my own experiences at Teledyne may in part be influenced by the area in which I live and work and may not represent the same experiences as other employees in other parts of the country. What I do know is that irrespective of location we all share common employment policies and employee benefits that protect ourselves and our families, as diverse as they may be. This month marks Teledyne’s first foray into officially recognizing LGBTQ Pride, and I’m happy to be a part of getting the word out that Teledyne is a great place to work. ​