Latest news with #Quiroga
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pride lights, and most other colors, no longer allowed on Florida bridges
No matter what the cause or its associated color, lighting a state bridge to recognize it is now against Florida policy — with, of course, a big patriotic exception. In a policy quietly adopted in February and playing out around the state this Memorial Day weekend, the Florida Department of Transportation says lighting on state-managed bridges 'shall be a default scheme of red, white and blue' and 'limited to the recognition, commemoration and or promotion of government holidays.' It effectively makes a standard practice out of the 'Freedom Summer' lighting rule declared by FDOT last year. And it squelches, without express state permission, options such as rainbow colors for LGBTQ+ Pride Month in June, or even orange for National Gun Violence Awareness Month, also in June, or red in September for Sickle Cell Awareness Month. Recent history suggests that special permission for some causes would be tough to get. Last year's freedom summer declaration came about after the state overruled a practice in Tampa of deploying rainbow lighting during Pride Month. For three years the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay had sported such lighting, but in 2024 a Manatee County Commissioner objected. In prior years, creative bridge lighting had been fairly common in some locales. In 2016 the Central Florida Expressway Authority lit up the Lake Underhill Bridge on State Road 408 in Orlando with rainbow colors after the June 16 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub. CFX — created by the state in 2014 — said by email that it follows the city of Orlando's specialty lighting schedule. However, the city has no bridges or roads that it lights up in color for special occasions. Orlando does illuminate the Lake Eola fountain, City Hall and public art displays. The city's specialty lighting schedule includes red, white and blue illumination for Memorial Day. Orlando also used specials colors for other occasions such as red on Nurse's Day (May 6) and pink, purple and yellow on Mothers Day (May 12). Tatiana Quiroga, executive director of Come out with Pride Orlando which is behind the city's LGTBQ + parade and the region's biggest celebration, said her organization has never made any special lighting requests of the state. Quiroga said the city uses rainbow lights at the Lake Eola fountain for the Pride celebration. She said Orange County and the city have a long history of supporting Pride. 'We have a great relationship with the city but it speaks volumes that we don't have one with the state,' Quiroga said. 'It illustrates a lack of support from the state for LGBTQ. 'They don't support pride but also what happens to the breast cancer community who want pink lights or showing support for the immigrant community or the Black community?' she asked. The holidays stipulated by the state are New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, the Friday after Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. The state has approved at least one exception to its policy so far: In the city of Sarasota, the community requested aqua blue as the default color on the Ringling Bridge when it isn't lit up in red, white and blue for the holidays observed by the state. With permission, those colors lit up the bridge earlier this month. FDOT said the policy is part of the Salute to America 250 Task Force, a group created by President Donald Trump that's planning a full year of festivities starting Memorial Day and running through July 4, 2026 — when the U.S. celebrates 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed. In a post on X, FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue said state bridges and highways will be lit with red, white and blue beginning Friday through 2026 'in commemoration of #America250.' 'Doing so reinforces how lucky we are to live in the Free State of Florida, USA,' Perdue said in the post. The Tampa Bay Times contributed to this report
Forbes
08-04-2025
- Health
- Forbes
U.K. Woman Gives Birth To Healthy Baby After Receiving Womb Transplant
A baby has been born in the UK to the recipient of a transplanted womb. A woman in the U.K. has become the first in the country to give birth after receiving a womb transplant from her sister. Grace Davidson, 36 gave birth on February 27th to a healthy baby girl via caesarean section at hospital in the U.K. At 19, Davidson was diagnosed with a rare condition called Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome, meaning her womb was either missing or not developed properly. The condition affects around 1 in every 4,500 females and often people don't find out they are affected until their teenage years. External features and genitals are often normal in affected individuals and often people are only diagnosed when they fail to menstruate after puberty. In early 2023, Davidson received her sister's womb via a transplant that was documented as successful in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In Davidson's case, her ovaries were producing eggs despite the lack of functional womb, so prior to the transplant, Davidson and her husband had in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment to create embryos which were frozen, so they could be implanted after the transplant. 'Transplants are usually carried out in order to save a life. With this transplant we have been able to enhance a life, and now to create a life,' said Isabel Quiroga, who co-leads the UK living donor programme for wombs and is a consultant transplant and endocrine surgeon. 'This is a procedure that will give hope to many women without a functioning womb who thought they might not be able to get pregnant,' said Quiroga in a press release, who helped pioneer the transplant procedure and was in the operating theatre when Davidson delivered the baby. Davidson's sister Amy already had two children before donating her womb and the new baby is named Amy Isabel after both her and Quiroga. 'What a privilege it is to be able to gift something that in many ways I took for granted,' said Amy. "Watching Grace and Angus become parents has been an absolute joy and worth every moment. I feel eternally grateful to be part of their journey." The first baby to ever be born from a transplanted womb was in Sweden in 2014, with the boy now being 10 years old. The first U.S. trial for womb transplants in people without viable wombs, either due to a condition like Davidson's or due to removal e.g. because of cancer, was started in 2017 at UPenn Medicine, with the first baby born to a woman with a transplanted uterus in 2019. There have been an estimated 120 babies born worldwide to mothers with transplanted wombs.
