#2893: Amber Lynn Gilles

Amber Lynn Gilles is a local San Diego mother, antivaccine activist and generally terrible person. She received some attention in 2020 after she was denied service at a Starbucks for refusing to wear a mask – Gilles claims that masks are ineffective and that she was medically exempt from wearing them (without specifying why). She promptly threatened the barista with the police and went on to try to shame him (with picture and name) on social media; in addition to yelling at him, she predictably also accused other customers who complied with the rules of being sheep. “It starts with coffee but it ends with digital certificates and forced vaccinations,” said Gilles. It does not.

 

Now, similar events presumably played out a lot of places in the US in 2020; the story here got wider attention after someone set up a GoFundMe account to support the barista. Gilles promptly went public claiming that she was entitled to some of the money raised and sued the GoFundMe creators for defamation and slander. Later the same year, Gilles also sued Sprouts after having been denied entry to one of their stores for not wearing a mask; Gilles explicitly argued that her rights were violated under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (they obviously weren’t) and the state’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, but failed again to specify any medical condition that prevented her from wearing a mask. The courts were not impressed.

 

Then she tried to capitalize on the attention she received by hosting a local “Burn Your Mask Bonfire” with (according to herself) leaders of the anti-vaccine movement; “the bonfire is to bring awareness and to stop the discrimination, leading to COVID digital vaccine and digital currency,” said Gilles, without explaining what a digital vaccine might be or what digital currency would have to do with it. That event, which is covered here, involved the participation of Joshua Coleman and a number of colorfully paranoid local dingbats, including (we note their names here in case they pop up in positions of power in the future):

 

-       Brandon Ross, the event’s co-host

-       Genevieve Peters, who herself had a history of trying to capitalize on being denied service for not wearing a mask. “For millions of years, we have had viruses. … We have had bacteria. And all sorts of … microorganisms,” said Peters, and “God gave us our immune system” (and how well did people do relying exclusively on God’s immune system back in the days, Genevieve?) She also touted hydroxychloroquine as a preventative means, urged the crowd to follow the advice of the insane group of loons known as “America’s Frontline Doctors” and likened Americans obeying mask rules to Jews following Nazi edicts amid the Holocaust (indeed, anyone criticizing her are just like the Nazis: “When people (say) I’m not being kind and … thoughtful — I might as well get on that train in Germany as well”)

-       Carmen Estel, a local “Holy Fire Reiki Master Practitioner” who ostensibly channels healing methods from Jesus and angels. “I am not dying in my time. I am dying in God’s time. … If God wants me to die of the virus, I will die of the virus,” said Estel, which is a funny way of marketing your healing services.

 

Participants would toss masks into a bonfire while claiming the masks were “tools of terror” and a “precursor to adult mandatory vaccination”. Messages on the burned masks included the usual paranoid conspiracy drivel (“Lies by the mainstream media”, “Nice try, Satan”), and participants claimed to be “ready to die for this mission” and that the masks can’t protect anyone since “Jesus and only Jesus can save.”

 

And Gilles, who calls herself a yoga teacher and is a promoter of the delusions of Earthing (“Not wearing your shoes is really healthy. … There’s magnetic energy in the ground”), really went all in on Covid conspiracy theories, suggesting that Covid itself wasn’t that dangerous: all those dead people really had pre-existing conditions (so they don’t count), and besides: “They’re killing people with respirators. Educate yourself.” Rather, it is the measures to protect against Covid that are dangerous here: “Ya know, the masks don’t protect against COVID. … They cause cancer (and) kidney problems, too.” They don’t, but the idea of using proper means to align your beliefs with reality is as foreign to Gilles as the idea of trying to be a decent person.

 

Diagnosis: Indeed: the idea of using proper means to align your beliefs with reality is as foreign to Gilles as the idea of trying to be a decent person. Instead, Gilles is paranoid, delusional, angry and mean – altogether a hopelessly terrible person.