Homobiles: When catching a ride can be such a drag Homobiles gives diverse clientele a safe lift with a text or a call

As a Homobiles ride begins, Grace Tower plays with Jay Snow the dog as Matt Picone loads items into the trunk. As a Homobiles ride begins, Grace Tower plays with Jay Snow the dog as Matt Picone loads items into the trunk. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Homobiles: When catching a ride can be such a drag 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

Her ample body sheathed in white satin, drag queen Mutha Chucka hurried out of a San Francisco house, plopped into a Prius' shotgun seat and immediately reclined it so her foot-high platinum beehive wig wouldn't get squashed by the roof.

"Hey, babe, you're looking good," said the driver, Lynn Breedlove. "What number are you doing at the Stud tonight?"

"It's Oscar night," Mutha Chucka said. "I'm lip-syncing to Meryl Streep in 'Mamma Mia' singing 'Winner Takes It All.' "

The car was part of a ride-sharing service called Homobiles that Breedlove started for people who face discrimination for their sexual orientation.

"Homobiles is a safe ride service for gender and sexual outlaws, which includes anyone from a woman in a miniskirt to a drag queen to a fag to an effeminate straight man," said Breedlove, 55. A transgender man, he's done jobs that include fronting for the punk rock group Tribe 8 and running an all-female bike messenger service called Lickety Split.

"Homobiles is for people who feel at risk because they don't conform to sexual or gender norms and are therefore a target of rudeness, shame or violence."

Like the new generation of smartphone app-enabled services such as UberX, Lyft and Sidecar, Homobiles uses independent drivers who pilot their own cars. That's earned it the sobriquet "Uber for drag queens."

But the similarities end there. With a mission that's social, not financial, Homobiles operates on donations, with no one turned away for lack of funds. It's seeking nonprofit status. It's also much more low tech, with riders texting or calling in requests to a couple of dispatchers. Its website, at www.homobiles.org, is informational, not interactive (although it does allow users to text ride requests).

Breedlove, who maintains a constant friendly patter with the "babes" and "pals" in his car, started the service almost by chance a couple of years ago, after giving rides to "girls" at an Oakland conference for people who identify as queer femmes.

"They were so happy and relieved to have safe transportation," he said. "They kept asking me to come back. I thought, maybe I should do this all the time."

Breedlove printed up flyers and started handing them out at gay bars like the Stud and Holy Cow.

"Famous drag queens started getting in the car," he said, rattling off their names and creds: Heklina (founder of Trannyshack, a drag show at DNA), Juanita More (BeatPig at the Powerhouse), David Glamamore (host of Some Thin at the Stud).

"The drag queens of San Francisco were our greatest advertising. They'd tell their audiences, 'Everyone pull out your phones right now; put this number in your phone.' Pretty soon every gay guy in town was calling Homobiles for a ride. All kinds of butches and femmes and transmen and transwomen - every letter in the alphabet soup."

Now Homobiles averages about 150 rides a day and has 10 drivers. Breedlove would like to find more drivers but said it's hard to beat the big bucks dangled by UberX, Lyft or Sidecar.

The state Public Utilities Commission gave a shout-out to Homobiles in its September decision regulating the new ride services, even while noting that it's of a different ilk.

"We applaud the founders of Homobiles for establishing a non-profit 501(c)(3) volunteer organization that caters to the underserved communities of San Francisco," it wrote.

On a drizzly Friday night, fares included an engineer on her way home from the Lesbians Who Tech Summit at the Castro Theatre, assorted drag queens and supporters headed to gay bars, and a couple of women going home after dinner.

The looks featured colossal wigs, glitter galore and tarantula-size fake eyelashes. The vibe was like a gaggle of friends en route to the prom, touching up hair and makeup, and gossiping about who would be there.

"I was a wreck getting ready," said Coca Kahlo, sliding into the back seat, her wig a-tilt. "I don't even have my face on yet."

Jogging up to Breedlove's car, Tanya Wischerath called out, "Hold on, Homobiles, I'll be there in a hot second."

Wischerath, who works as a tattoo artist, settled in the back seat with a friend and explained why she's a huge fan.

"It's such a community organization; it's always personal," she said. "Homobiles is like my own car; I just don't happen to be the one driving it. When I was a stripper, I didn't want to stand outside in my slutty outfit trying to hail a cab."

Likewise, Chucka said it's tough for drag queens to hail cabs - and sometimes even tougher when they stop.

"I kept running into drivers who assume if you're in drag, you must be a prostitute," Chucka said.

Breedlove said that's one reason the service especially caters to performers, although anyone of any persuasion is welcome.

"If you are putting on a face for whatever reason - drag queen, burlesque dancer - and you have to get to SoMa for your show, it's a little iffy to try to flag down a cab," he said. "A cab driver might feel you're a hooker. How long will you stand there freezing your ass off, looking like a piece of candy that maybe doesn't want to be unwrapped?

"We're there to get you where you want to go in a safe little portal so you don't have to run a gauntlet and defend yourself from all kinds of weird energy and worse."