International Front Runners (Frontrunners) is an umbrella organization of LGBT

LGBT

LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

 running

Running

Running is a means of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. It is simply defined in athletics terms as a gait in which at regular points during the running cycle both feet are off the ground...

 and walking

Walking

Walking is one of the main gaits of locomotion among legged animals, and is typically slower than running and other gaits. Walking is defined by an 'inverted pendulum' gait in which the body vaults over the stiff limb or limbs with each step...

 clubs around the world. There are over 100 Frontrunners clubs worldwide, about half of which are in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Activities

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

Relay race

During a relay race, members of a team take turns running, orienteering, swimming, cross-country skiing, biathlon, or ice skating parts of a circuit or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games...

 and international LGBT sporting events such as Gay Games

Gay Games

The Gay Games is the world's largest sporting and cultural event organized by and specifically for LGBT athletes, artists, musicians, and others. It welcomes participants of every sexual orientation and every skill level...

, World Outgames

World Outgames

The World Outgames are a sporting and cultural event hosted by the gay community. With over 12,000 participants, the 1st World Outgames, held in 2006, was the largest international event to be held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada since the 1976 Summer Olympiad. These first Outgames were not as...

, and EuroGames

Eurogames (LGBT sporting event)

The EuroGames are a gay and lesbian sporting event in Europe, hosted by license of the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation and organised by one or more of the federation's member clubs....

; 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.

Name variation

There are three different spellings of the organization name: FrontRunners, Front Runners and Frontrunners.

History

Frontrunners was inspired by Patricia Nell Warren

Patricia Nell Warren

Patricia Nell Warren is an openly lesbian American author and journalist.-Biography:Primarily known as an author, Warren is also commonly known as "the mother of Frontrunners" - the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender running/walking clubs that have been started in Los Angeles and other large...

's novel The Front Runner

The Front Runner

The Front Runner is a 1974 novel by Patricia Nell Warren. The book, considered by some as a classic example of LGBT literature of the period, is a love story exploring issues relating to homosexuals in American sports....

. 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)

Christopher Street (Manhattan)

Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the continuation of 9th St. to the west of its intersection with 6th Ave. The Stonewall Inn is located on Christopher Street, and, therefore, the street was at the center of New York's...

 West/CSW

Christopher Street West

Christopher Street West is the non-profit organization that produces the Los Angeles LGBT Pride Celebration held every June in its host city of West Hollywood, California, USA....

 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

Kevin and Don Norte

Kevin and Don Norte are a Los Angeles based gay rights community activist couple involved in the movement at a grass roots level. They are both Log Cabin Republicans-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.

Famous Frontrunners

• Actor George Takei
  George Takei
  George Hosato Takei Altman is an American actor, author, social activist and former civil politician. He is best known for his role in the television series Star Trek and its film spinoffs, in which he played Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the...
  
  met his husband Brad Altman during a Frontrunners run in the 1980s.