Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Florida Starbucks customer goes viral for homophobic video rant at lesbian couple

TikTok of incident in Coral Gables has been watched more than 7 million times

Graeme Massie
Los Angeles
Wednesday 15 March 2023 15:57 GMT
Comments
Florida Starbucks customer goes viral for homophobic video rant

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A Starbucks customer in Florida went viral for unleashing a hate-filled and homophobic tirade on a lesbian couple whom she accused of grooming children.

The shocking TikTok clip has now had more than 7 million views after it was posted by user Cassie Urry on Sunday.

Ms Urry told The Daily Beast that she and her girlfriend Lorrin Skrbec stopped for a coffee in Coral Gables before getting on a cruise from Miami to the Bahamas.

She said that when she entered the store customers and staff were all staring at the woman.

“We saw [a] woman saying, like, a lot of racist things and a lot of racial slurs,” 22-year-old Ms Urry said.

“There (were) Asian customers there. And she had said to them that they were creations of the devil and that everybody in the Starbucks was sitting in the presence of the devil and not doing anything about it.”

She said that the woman, who has not been identified, was making a string of anti-Asian statements linked to Covid-19, and that her girlfriend intervened while she recorded the incident.

@sass.curry

Interaction with this lovely lady in Miami

♬ original sound - Cass

In the video, which is entitled “Karen in the wild”, the woman asks the couple, “Is lesbianism okay?”

And then answers her own question, stating “No, it isn’t because you touch children. You rape children. Yes, because you’re evil.”

Customers and staff defended the couple from the wild allegations, but the woman ended her rant by saying “You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

The video ends with the store manager confronting the woman and taking her to one side.

“We were both in shock a little bit. It was weird,” Ms Urry told The Daily Beast. “I didn’t quite know how to respond. I was feeling angry and feeling a lot of emotions, but I think just I knew realistically that escalating the situation wasn’t going to get us anywhere. And you just can’t reason with some people. So we just had to keep our cool.”

A Starbucks spokesperson said the company does not “tolerate any form of discrimination” in its stores.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in