We've seen Karens in action. We've even seen Karens double-down when called out for their terrible behavior. But we've never seen a Karen Karening as hard as Amber Lynn Gilles.
You may not know her full name, but Amber Lynn Gilles is the woman who tried to shame a San Diego Starbucks employee for not serving her. She refused to follow store policy/California regulations and wear a face mask inside the location.
When the barista, Lenin Gutierrez, declined to serve her she snapped his picture and tried to blast him in a now-deleted Facebook post.
Lenin later described the encounter.
Other customers have confirmed his version of events.
"Before I could say anything she flipped me off and said I don't need one and she started cursing up a storm. She started calling people sheep and she left and within a few minutes came back and she asked for my name and took a photo."
Amber-Karen's Facebook post tried to shame Lenin.
It also solidified her position as a total Karen by threatening to involve police "next time." Yes, in the middle of everything going on right now she threatened to involve police.
She also spelled Lenin's name wrong and didn't capitalize it, but managed to capitalize Starbucks. As we said before, her post has since been deleted—but hooray for screenshots!
The post was a total middle finger on so many levels.
Amber Lynn Gilles/Facebook
She captioned the post:
"Meet lenen from Starbucks who refused to serve me cause I'm not wearing a mask. Next time I will wait for cops and bring a medical exemption."
Amber's Karening didn't quite work out the way she intended, though.
Very few people were moved by her "struggle" and instead the public rallied behind Lenin, creating a GoFundMe for him. The initial goal was a thousand dollars, with the person who set it up saying he thought he would be lucky to hit two hundred dollars.
It's gotten over $100k for Lenin, who used to teach dance to children before the pandemic. Lenin has said he will use the money to further his education, continue dancing and give back to the community by launching a community dance program to teach children who could not afford lessons.
Excited dance for Lenin!
hell yeah dancing GIFGiphy
Amber Lynn, however, has not fared so well post-encounter.
She has continued to engage with the media, telling local outlets—like so many before her—that she is the real victim, people are being mean to her and claiming she never threatened or went after Lenin in any way. In fact, she is the one who was discriminated against.
A self-proclaimed anti-vax activist, Amber Lynn has told people that it starts with coffee but ends with "the mark of the beast and all of that forced vaccination stuff." That's why she is so passionate about not wearing a mask.
Here is a short clip.
It didn't go over well.
The public was pretty quick to point out the many ways her behavior did, in fact, threaten Lenin. They also pointed out she was not discriminated against, calling the police would have been both awful and pointless since Lenin was the one who was right and everything she is experiencing right now is merely a consequence of her own choices and actions.
Some have even used her as an example of why we should divert more funds to medicaid for all and mental health services. So now you're all caught up and we can talk about the cherry on this sundae.
Amber Lynn Gilles has spoken out again. This time, she wants a cut of the money raised by the GoFundMe.
Amber claims the money is being raised off of her name, so her and her three children should get some of it. If Lenin doesn't hand it over, she says she will sue him.
She is also looking at taking legal action against the creator of the GoFundMe for defamation and slander.
While Amber waits to see how those demands pan out, she has promoted her own GoFundMe "to redress the defamation and slander used against [her]."
Twitter hates this whole update.
Lenin has not spoken out about Amber's most recent round of threats.
That does not mean it hasn't made waves. In fact, Amber's outbursts have cost her a job.
Previously, Amber was a yoga instructor with The Yoga Alliance, but they have revoked her membership and released a statement speaking out against her behavior.
It appears there was no lesson learned by Karen/Amber, but for the rest of us "don't start none, won't be none" is a good takeaway.
@kileywrestling/Bluesky
