We were honored to have Cora Castle, Chair of the State of Delaware LGBTQ+ Commission, as our speaker for the Transgender Day of Visibility. Read her speech below.
I never set out to be here.
I transitioned in 2011, way before there was anything resembling a playbook. I was working in IT at a bank in Wilmington, figuring it out in real time. About a year into treatment (which I told no one about), my work wife pulled me aside and very kindly informed me that everyone had already figured out what was happening. And also, they would really appreciate it if I started wearing a bra to work.
So I learned early that you can be invisible in your own mind and extremely visible to everyone else.
From there I wanted something very simple. I wanted to wake up authentically, collect my paycheck, and avoid ridicule. I’d come out at work. I’d come out to my son. I hadn’t lost my job or my family. Mission accomplished.
What I didn’t realize at the time is that I wasn’t just building a quiet life. I was building a small one. Not all at once, just gradually. A little less visible. A little less present. A little less willing to take up space. It didn’t feel like loss. It felt like relief. And I did that for five years.
What interrupted it was watching Sarah McBride stand on a stage in Philadelphia in July 2016 and tell her truth. Not cautiously. Not partially. Not filtered down into something more acceptable. Fully. I stood in my living room, literally breathless, watching that and something I had quietly believed for years stopped being true. I had believed I wasn’t worthy of taking up space. And suddenly there was a counterexample. Someone who was visible and not diminished. Someone who was fully present and not ridiculed.
I realized I couldn’t possibly do less.
For five years I had been asking how do I protect myself. Suddenly the question became how do I protect everyone.
So I did what engineers do. I sat down and made a list. Skills, talents, time, what I actually had to offer. And I looked for the largest problem I could practically apply them to. That turned out to be climate and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. I started a company, joined an accelerator, learned to draft policy, and started calling legislators. When a colleague suggested I apply for the New Castle County Board of Adjustment, a body I knew nothing about, I said yes and then studied my ass off watching hours of previous meetings.
What I learned along the way is this: the answers to my technology problems were in the policies that govern them. The answers to my policy problems were in the people that live under them. So I just kept following the problem wherever it led.
That path eventually led to a text conversation with Governor Meyer about sustainability, ten minutes of watching the little typing indicator, and an invitation to join a new state commission. A few days later I learned he intended to name me chair. Service where service is needed is kind of my thing, so I said yes.
Here is what I want Delaware’s LGBTQ community to know. We have good laws. But a law that exists on paper and a law that is enforced consistently are not always the same thing. That gap is where people get hurt. Closing it is where we are going to work.
And we need your stories to do it. If you have experienced that gap between the law that’s supposed to protect you and the reality you actually lived, the commission wants to hear from you. We are listening. What you tell us will shape what we recommend and what gets built.
Because visibility doesn’t just affect the person who chooses it. It radiates in every direction. It changes what feels possible. It changes what we believe we’re capable of becoming.
You don’t owe the world perfection. You don’t owe the world an explanation.
But you do owe the world you.
Click here to see pictures from the 2026 Transgender Day of Visibility
About Cora Castle
Driven by the philosophy that sometimes if you need a hero you have to become one, Cora Castle is a pioneering clean energy innovator, dedicated public servant, and champion for STEM entrepreneurship based in Delaware. As the Executive Director of DESCA (Delaware Sustainable Chemistry Alliance), she bridges the gap between lab breakthroughs and the marketplace, helping emerging startups secure the funding and mentorship they need to thrive. An electrical engineer by training with a degree from the University of Delaware, Castle is also the President and Founder of OmniPotential Energy Partners, where she pioneered the patented Curbstar™ curbside EV charging platform to make clean vehicle ownership accessible to those without private garages. Beyond her technical ventures—which included helping write and pass bipartisan state legislation to ease EV infrastructure bottlenecks—she is a fierce advocate for community representation. She serves as the Chair of the Delaware LGBTQ+ Commission and Vice Chair of the New Castle County Board of Adjustment, bringing both her sharp engineering mind and her lived experience as an openly transgender woman to advance equitable policy, healthcare, and infrastructure.