Arts & Entertainment
Lesbian couple donates Rockefeller Center Christmas tree
Shirley Figueroa and Lissette Gutierrez nicknamed the Norway spruce Shelby

Shirley Figueroa and Lissette Gutierrez (Photo via Facebook)
For the first time in the 86-year history of the now iconic Rockefeller Center tree lighting ceremony, the tree was donated by a lesbian couple, according to the New York Times.
Shirley Figueroa and her wife Lissette Gutierrez moved to a home in Wallkill, N.Y., about an hour and a half outside New York City, last year. Figueroa, a Bronx native, wanted to find a new home with trees. The couple hit the jackpot as the property included a 72-foot Norway spruce tree, which weighs an estimated 12 tons.
The couple nicknamed the tree Shelby because “I felt she has a female spirit,” Figueroa told the Associated Press.
Shelby was adorned with five miles of LED multicolored lights topped off with a 900-pound Swarovski crystal star.
“Just the fact that I have a tree that I can donate when I came from somewhere that had no trees — it’s so surreal,” Figueroa told the New York Times.
Figueroa and Gutierrez are not only the first same-sex couple to donate a tree to Rockefeller Center but the first Latinx couple.
The tree will be on display through Jan. 7.
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