Lynn Breedlove | |
|---|---|
 Breedlove in 2019 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | December 16, 1958 |
| Origin | San Francisco Bay Area |
| Genres | Queercore, riot grrrl, punk rock, homocore |
| Occupation(s) | musician, activist, writer, comic |
| Instrument | vocals |
| Years active | 1990-present |
Lynn Breedlove (also known as Lynnee Breedlove) is an American musician, writer, and performer who was born in Oakland, California.
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]
Breedlove is the queer founding member and lead singer of the San Francisco dyke punk band Tribe 8. The band's first single, "Pigbitch", was released on Harp records, run by Gina Harp in 1991. The second single, "There's a Dyke in the Pit", with Bikini Kill, 7 Year Bitch, and the Lucy Stoners was released by the queercore record label Outpunk in 1992, and later releases were on the independent record label Alternative Tentacles. The band appeared on film in A Gun for Jennifer and also performed in She's Real, Worse Than Queer , and Rise Above: A Tribe 8 Documentary by Tracy Flannigan.
Breedlove has performed at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and criticized the festival's trans-exclusionary policies. [2] Tribe 8 also played at the San Francisco Transgender March, multiple Ladyfests, and LGBT Pride Festivals, including Europride 2000 in Rome, Italy. [3]
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.
Breedlove has performed spoken word on Sister Spit tours, and from 2000 to 2006 he and Tara Jepsen co-hosted a monthly sexuality and gender identity-based cultures open mic in San Francisco called K'vetch. Breedlove MC'd the 3rd Annual SF Trans March in '07.[ citation needed ]
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.
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]
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.
Godspeed was produced as a short film, starring Breedlove as Jim, the antihero, Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys as the dispatcher, and Jillian Lauren, aka Sparkle Diamonds of the LA burlesque troupe Velvet Hammer, as the stripper love interest. It features music by Tribe8, Lunachicks, The Gossip, Katastrophe, MDC, All The Pretty Horses, Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, Blatz, and Dirtbox. Breedlove co-directed with Jen Gilomen and co-produced with Kami Chisholm, wrote the script, and starred in the film. Music supervision provided by Kathleen Hanna and art directed by Vega Darling.
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.
In November 2019, Breedlove was commended by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors during Transgender Awareness Week. [15]
Breedlove is a trans man. [16] [17] Breedlove was featured in the 2016 documentary, Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution , directed by Yony Leyser.
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]
Lynn Breedlove self-identified as Native American in his 2019 book 45 Thought Crimes [19] and a subsequent interview with the Advocate . [1]
Breedlove’s claim of Native American Ancestry is based on self-identification. He has not located himself within kinship networks of any specific group of Indigenous Americans. Nor has he named any tribe or tribes, government recognized or not, from which he may be descended. In The Advocate interview, Breedlove states that his father had "stories and photos, family trees… I research and report back to him. We theorize to fill in blanks". [1]
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").
Queercore is a cultural/social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the punk subculture and a music genre that comes from punk rock. It is distinguished by its discontent with society in general, and specifically society's disapproval of the LGBT community. Queercore expresses itself in a DIY style through magazines, music, writing and film.
Tribe 8 was a lesbian punk rock band from San Francisco, considered one of the first queercore groups. The band took their name from the practice of tribadism, with "tribe eight" being a play on the word tribade, a sexual practice sometimes also known as "scissoring."
Queer Nation is an LGBTQ activist organization founded in March 1990 in New York City, by HIV/AIDS activists from ACT UP. The four founders were outraged at the escalation of anti-gay violence on the streets and prejudice in the arts and media. The group is known for its confrontational tactics, its slogans, and the practice of outing.
The California Public Utilities Commission is a regulatory agency that regulates privately owned public utilities in the state of California, including electric power, telecommunications, natural gas and water companies. In addition, the CPUC regulates common carriers, including household goods movers, limousines, rideshare services, self-driving cars, and rail crossing safety. The CPUC has headquarters in the Civic Center district of San Francisco, and field offices in Los Angeles and Sacramento.
Leslie Mah is an American musician and performer.
Rise Above: The Tribe 8 Documentary is a feature film about the all women queercore punk band Tribe 8 directed and produced by Tracy Flannigan.
The Compton's Cafeteria riot occurred in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. The riot was a response to the violent and constant police harassment of trans people, particularly trans women, and drag queens. The incident was one of the first LGBTQ-related riots in United States history, preceding the more famous 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. It marked the beginning of transgender activism in San Francisco.
Manic D Press is an American literary press based in San Francisco, California publishing fiction, poetry, cultural studies, art, narrative-oriented comix, children's books, and alternative travel trade paperbacks. It was founded by Jennifer Joseph in 1984, as an alternative outlet for young writers seeking to bring their work into print, and since its founding has expanded its mission to include writers of all ages. Manic D books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, including Russian, Japanese, Polish, Danish, Korean, and Hebrew.
Cypher in the Snow were an American all women queercore band from San Francisco, California, United States.
Sister Spit was a lesbian-feminist spoken-word and performance art collective based in San Francisco, signed to Mr. Lady Records. They formed in 1994 and disbanded in 2006. Founding members included Michelle Tea and Sini Anderson, Other members included Jane LeCroy and poet Eileen Myles. The group were noted for their Ramblin' Roadshow, performing at feminist events such as the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. The Boston Phoenix described it as "the coolest line-up of talented, tattooed, pierced, and purple-pigtailed performance artists the Bay Area has to offer."
Lyft, Inc. is an American company offering ride-hailing services, motorized scooters, bicycle-sharing systems, and rental cars in the United States and select cities in Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dynamic pricing model based on local supply and demand at the time of the booking and are quoted to the customer in advance, and receives a commission from each booking. Lyft is the second-largest ridesharing company in the United States after Uber.
Meliza Bañales is an American writer, performer, and slam poet. She has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Cruz, and Los Angeles.
Shared transport or shared mobility is a transportation system where travelers share a vehicle either simultaneously as a group or over time as personal rental, and in the process share the cost of the journey. It is a transportation strategy that allows users to access transportation services on an as-needed basis, and can be regarded as a hybrid between private vehicle use and mass or public transport. Shared mobility is an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of transportation modes including carsharing, Bicycle-sharing systems, ridesharing companies, carpools, and microtransit.
Wingz, Inc. is a vehicle for hire company that provides private, scheduled, and fixed-price rides in 30 major cities across the United States via mobile app. The service provides rides anywhere in the cities it serves, with a focus on airports. Wingz offers the ability to request specific drivers for rides and allows users to build a list of their favorite drivers for future bookings.
A ridesharing company is a company that, via websites and mobile apps, matches passengers with drivers of vehicles for hire that, unlike taxis, cannot legally be hailed from the street. The vehicles used in ridesharing/ridehailing service are called app-taxis or e-taxis.
The legality of ridesharing companies by jurisdiction varies; in some areas they are considered to be illegal taxi operations, while in other areas, they are subject to regulations that can include requirements for driver background checks, fares, caps on the number of drivers in an area, insurance, licensing, and minimum wage.
El Rio is a gay bar located at 3158 Mission Street, San Francisco, California. It was the first gay bar to debut queer salsa in San Francisco. El Río was established in 1978 as a Leather Brazilian Gay Bar and has been recognized as a Legacy Business by the San Francisco Small Business Commission. El Rio is best known for supporting the community by providing a space for community gatherings, LGBT performances, diverse forms of music and dancing, and offering a space for community fundraising events.
Homobiles is an American nonprofit organization founded in 2011 which provides rides primarily to the San Francisco LGBT community on a pay-what-you-can model. Lynn Breedlove founded the organization as an alternative to taxi services and public transportation in order to counter discrimination against drag queens, transgender riders, and other members of the LGBT community. Rides are arranged through phone call, text message, or mobile application similar to other transportation network (ridesharing) companies.
Fist City is the first studio album by the American queer punk band Tribe 8, released in 1995. The band supported the album with a North American tour.
Yony Leyser is a director and writer based in Berlin.
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