For years, Ruby Corado has been a familiar face in certain corners of the city. Workers at foreign consulates, where Corado advocates for transgender immigrants struggling to change the “M” to an “F” on their documents, know her by name. When D.C.’s Office of Human Rights conducted an awareness campaign for the trans community, Corado was the first person contacted. And, of course, she’s a fixture in the lives of many of D.C.’s transgender residents who patronize Casa Ruby, the nonprofit community center she runs on a shoestring budget. Now Corado’s profile has expanded, thanks to her status as a go-to spokesperson on transgender issues. If there’s such a thing as a local transgender media star, she is it. Whether the Washington Post is publishing a story on a hate crime or an event featuring Janet Mock, a helpful quote from Ruby is all but guaranteed. (The Post even featured Corado in its massive Mother’s Day special, putting her in the same company as Valerie Jarrett and a handful of congresswomen.) Corado says she doesn’t mind speaking for the trans community, even though that means fielding two or three media inquiries a week (including one from the New York Times about, of all things, the deer-culling program in Rock Creek Park). “I’m working on mentoring new people,” she says, but her trainees are often reluctant to put their names and faces in the media out of fear for their safety. “I dream of the moment when the next trans person will take my place. I really do.”