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Lesbian couple donates Rockefeller Center Christmas tree

Shirley Figueroa and Lissette Gutierrez nicknamed the Norway spruce Shelby

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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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