Interview by Sean Bugg – MetroWeekly – Washington DC
When Ruby Corado arrived in the Washington area as an immigrant from El Salvador, she was a teenager. She was also male.
“What marked the point when I decided I needed to leave was when I saw that my life was in danger for political and sexual orientation reasons,” says Corado of her journey to the U.S.
A self-described “very, very feminine” youngster, the then-teenage Corado slowly entered the D.C. gay scene, discovering a new world in the glitter and glamour of drag. And over the years, what may have started as drag revealed itself to be a part of everyday life.
Since that realization, Corado — she chose to use the maternal family name in honor of her mother, who died of cancer — has launched herself into the world of GLBT activism. Most significantly, she was part of the Coalition to Clarify the D.C. Human Rights Act, a group of activists who successfully mobilized to change D.C. Human Rights Act to include protections for gender identity or expression. The law took effect this March.