| International Front Runners | |
|---|---|
| Purpose/focus | LGBT running/walking clubs |
| Website | frontrunners.org |
International Front Runners (Frontrunners) is an umbrella organization of LGBT running and walking clubs around the world. There are over 100 Frontrunners clubs worldwide, about half of which are in the United States.
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Most Frontrunners clubs host one or more weekly fun runs. Following a 30-year tradition, members typically gather afterwards at a local restaurant.
Many of the larger clubs host social events such as potluck dinners and annual banquets; participate as a team in distance relays and international LGBT sporting events such as Gay Games, World Outgames, and EuroGames; and elect officers, have bylaws and a membership-dues structure.
A growing interest in walking has led some Frontrunners clubs to add "Frontwalkers" to their club name.
There are three different spellings of the organization name: FrontRunners, Front Runners and Frontrunners.
Frontrunners was inspired by Patricia Nell Warren's novel The Front Runner. The first club began in San Francisco in 1974, the West Hollywood/Los Angeles club quickly followed, and other Frontrunners clubs quickly began forming around the world in the late 1970s, including Front Runners New York.
Patricia Nell Warren, known as "Patches" to her Frontrunners family, also frequented the runs and the annual dinners held by the Los Angeles group and participated in the annual Christopher Street (Manhattan) West/CSW LGBT rights parade as part of the Frontrunners contingent during the 1990s, thanks to then-president Marty Freedman and then-executive board member Don Norte.
Frontrunners became a more formal body by drafting and adopting a mission statement and constitution at the Frontrunners International Frontrunner Forum in 1999.