Lynn Breedlove was born in and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area during early childhood and then lived in Alameda and Oakland, California, as a teenager. His father was a high school teacher who claimed to be of partial Native American descent. His mother was a secretary who originally hailed from Germany. Breedlove was an only child.[1]
In 2015, Breedlove returned to playing music with the emergence of his new band, The Homobiles, billed as a "queer-punk supergroup", with Ed Varga, founder of Homo A Gogo, songwriter Mya Byrne, Fureigh (former guitarist for The Shondes), Stephany Ashley (executive director of St. James Infirmary Clinic), and Corrie Bennett.
Starting in 2004, Breedlove created the comedy solo show Lynnee Breedlove's One Freak Show which has been touring the U.S., Canada, and Europe in five languages. A book based on this show with the same title was published by Manic D Press in 2009. The book, Lynnee Breedlove's One Freak Show, won the 2010 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Literature.[4]
Since 2004, Breedlove often hosts Gender Pirates, a monthly benefit for the group United Genders of the Universe in San Francisco, and has hosted the Unka Lynnee Show on Pirate Cat Radio (formerly the Unka Lynnee & Aunty Cindy Show with Cindy Emch), as well as taught Unka Lynnee's Skool 4 Boyz at The Harvey Milk Institute. The column, "Uncle Lynnee's Skool For Bois", ran for two years at On Our Backs magazine and twice as "Unka Lynnee's Skool 4 Boyz" at Velvet Park Magazine.[5]
In May 2013, Breedlove appeared on Music Life Radio,[6] discussing Tribe 8, and Homobiles,[7] the new LGBTQ ride sharing non-profit service founded by Breedlove in San Francisco.
Homobiles non-profit
Breedlove is the founder of the San Francisco based non-profit Homobiles, a California NPO 501(c)(3) committed to providing secure and reliable transit to the SF Bay Area LGBTIQQ community and its allies.[7] Homobiles is credited by Sidecar Co-Founder Sunil Paul as the first peer-to-peer ridesharing service in the United States and the inspiration for Sidecar's business model.[8]
Homobiles officially launched their donation-based community mutual aid service in 2011 after Breedlove first began giving rides in 2010[9] - to protect drag performers and people who didn't feel safe or wouldn't be picked up by traditional taxi services.
They serve not just SF's queer community but people of color, and allies. Homobiles is also credited by members of the business community with pioneering the operating model that helped lead to Lyft and Uber's success.[10][11][12]
Godspeed and Freak Show
In 2002, Breedlove's first novel, Godspeed, was published by St. Martin's Press. The main character of the book is a methamphetamine-using bicycle messenger named Jim. The main character is said to be based on Breedlove's years as an addict.[13] In 2007, a German translation of the novel was published, titled Götterspeed on Mox und Moritz.
Breedlove's other published books are Lynnee Breedlove's One Freak Show and 45 Thought Crimes,[14] published by Manic D Press in 2009 and 2019, respectively.
Honors and awards
Breedlove receiving a certificate of honor from San Francisco supervisor Matt Haney and his legislative aide Honey Mahogany, November 2019
He has experienced addiction in the past, citing what helped as being, "a lot of therapy and working with things like Buddhism and all kinds of spiritual practices that help me be able to hold two opposite ideas at the same time. I'm a feminist and I'm a dyke and I fucking hate men and I'm a man. I identify as a dyke and as a guy. People are pissed off about that because they want you to pick a side. Really, my choice isn't about you. I don't tell you to lop your tits off, and you don't get to tell me that I can't be a dyke and a guy. That is just as repressive as any of the bullshit that we're rebelling against."[18]
Native American Identity
Lynn Breedlove self-identified as Native American in his 2019 book “45 Thought Crimes” [19] and a subsequent Interview in the Advocate Magazine.[1]
Mr. Breedlove’s claim of Native American Ancestry is based on research from Ancestry.com and family trees passed down from a great-aunt, which matches family namesfrom original French settlers. He acknowledges that he is not officially enrolled in any tribe and that his ancestors are a mix of colonizers and colonized.
Breedlove's mother was raised in Nazi Germany, and his father's family spoke often of their Native American ancestry. His book "45 Thought Crimes" touches on issues of white supremacy and mocks the idea of white people claiming to have Native heritage as a way of acquiring leftist social standing without actually acknowledging how this harms Indigenous peoples (i.e., white people being "pretendians").
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