Lynn Breedlove


Lynn Breedlove is an American musician, writer, and performer who was born in Oakland, California.

Tribe 8 and The Homobiles

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 by Tracy Flannigan.
Breedlove has performed at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, and criticized the festival's trans-exclusionary policies. Tribe 8 also played at the San Francisco Transgender March, multiple Ladyfests and LGBT Pride Festivals, including Europride 2000 in Rome, Italy.
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, Stephany Ashley, and Corrie Bennett.

Spoken word, open mike, and radio shows

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 mike in San Francisco called K'vetch. Breedlove MC'd the 3rd Annual SF Trans March in '07.
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 5 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.
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, 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.
In May 2013, Breedlove appeared on discussing Tribe 8, and Homobiles, the new LGBTQ ride sharing non-profit service founded by Breedlove in San Francisco.

''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. In 2007, a German translation of the novel was published, titled Götterspeed on Mox und Moritz.
Godspeed is now 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 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-directs with Jen Gilomen, co-produces with Kami Chisholm, wrote the script and is currently writing the screenplay for Godspeed the feature film.
Breedlove's other published books are Lynnee Breedlove’s One Freak Show and Forty-Five Thought Crimes, published by Manic D Press in 2009 and 2019, respectively.

Honors and awards

In November 2019, Breedlove was commended by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors during Transgender Awareness Week.

Personal life

Breedlove is a trans man. Breedlove was featured in the 2016 documentary, directed by Yony Leyser.

Filmography