Sacramento LGBTQ+ runners find community for over 30 years. ‘Part of my family’
An ever-growing group of activewear-clad gay runners has met up beside Sacramento’s “mini Golden Gate Bridge” every Saturday for years, and it is getting stronger than ever before.
The Sacramento FrontRunners and FrontWalkers, the California capital region’s chapter of the international LGBTQ+ running organization, has experienced a recent, unprecedented growth in membership in after being a home for the area’s queer community for more than 30 years.
“I’m still amazed,” said James Evans-Brown, a founding member of Sacramento FrontRunners. “I do thank the younger members, because we couldn’t get the group to really grow until the last two years, I’d say.”
On Saturday, the run club had a potentially record-breaking 40 runners and walkers meet at the Guy West Bridge next to Sacramento State for a 45-minute excursion along the American River Parkway, run club co-founder Saul Arcos’ favorite running spot in Sacramento.
As quicker runners passed by the slower-paced members, they cheered each other on with waves, high-fives and words of encouragement.
“Sometimes people think that we are very competitive ... that’s just the perception they have of running,” said Arcos. “But it’s not that way (at FrontRunners).”
Building an LGBTQ+ community in Sacramento
Evans-Brown and Arcos helped found Sacramento’s FrontRunners organization in 1992, seeking a space to meet other gay Sacramentans outside the bar and club scene.
“It was so different (in 1992),” Arcos said. “We didn’t have social media, it was really limited the way that we could meet people. (FrontRunners) was a good way for us to not go to the bars.”
Evans-Brown and his boyfriend at the time placed an ad in Sacramento’s gay community newspaper Mom Guess What to advertise the first FrontRunners meetup. Even though the nascent group was able to develop a decent-sized group of regulars in its early years, the founding runners still faced challenges from the political climate.
Coming down from the peak of the AIDS crisis, LGBTQ+ community members were fearful of coming out of the closet through the 1990s due to the ongoing stigma facing homosexuality. Some early FrontRunners participants who were not as ready to be open about their sexuality felt uncomfortable, particularly with group photos being taken to track attendance, Arcos said.
“Some of us were really not out,” Evans-Brown said. “That was a time when employers could easily kick you out (for being gay).”
However, joy and community remained at the core of FrontRunners for many, including Jeff Lore, who found himself at the running club during a difficult time of his life.
“I personally came to this group when I was 53, having been married to a woman and I came out,” Lore said. “This has been a safe spot for so many of us ... I needed a safe haven, and they literally helped me.”
Lore said situations like his are not uncommon among the FrontRunners group, and every new member looking for a place in the community is embraced with open arms.
Besides weekly run clubs around Sacramento, the runners connect through movie nights, “Mario Kart” tournaments, day trips around the region and many other activities — so much so that Arcos and Evans-Brown said they can’t keep up with everything the group does anymore.
“It is a big part of my life, some of my best friends are from FrontRunners,” Arcos said. “They are part of my family, I care for them, and they care for me. It did change my life.”
Today, the Sacramento FrontRunners hosts three weekly running and walking events open to the community. All the group’s runs are free to join, but regular attendees are encouraged to become full-fledged members starting at $30 annually, which comes with access to exclusive events, discounts on race registration and more, according to the group’s relations chair Trevor Hanson.
Alongside its weekly community run/walk events and other activities among its members, the Sacramento FrontRunners is hosting its second annual Pride 5K race this coming Saturday, June 13, to accompany the city’s Pride festival. Proceeds from the race will go to the Sacramento LGBT Community Center, Hanson said.
A worldwide running fraternity
Outside of Sacramento, FrontRunners participants can find other found family members wherever they go, Arcos and Evans-Brown said.
The Front Runners group is a global coalition of queer running groups, with over 130 clubs spanning 33 countries. The movement began in 1974 with the San Francisco FrontRunners group, which still operates to this day.
Front Runners’ name hails from the 1974 Patricia Nell Warren novel of the same name, which featured a love story between a runner and his male coach. The novel went down in history as the first book with LGBTQ+ central themes to hit the New York Times Bestsellers List.
As Front Runners chapters have expanded into six continents — no news on any plans to create an Antarctica club — so has the greater LGBTQ+ running community.
“When we go to big cities (around the world), we always try to connect with (other Front Runners),” Arcos said. “They host us, they let us stay in their houses, they take us around the city, they take us to dinner.”
Naturally, when other members of this extended running family come to the capital region, the home club returns the favor.
Running into the future
Starting with the dawn of dating apps and lasting through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sacramento FrontRunners suffered a dip in membership, Arcos and Evans-Brown said.
As people found easy ways to connect with other queer people online, it was a struggle to get them out onto the running trail. And when the pandemic limited the community’s development, participation hit a concerning low, according to longtime members.
“It was so hard to not just say, ‘Forget it, James,’ especially when we were so low,” Arcos said. “People didn’t want to get to really involved with this because of the work that it takes to get it going.”
It wasn’t until younger members of the club began spreading the word about FrontRunners on social media that membership started to pick up. Hanson and runner Ryan Cate helped revamp the organization’s online presence, which had a notable impact on the group — in just two years, the club has more than doubled its member numbers.
Despite the thriving community Sacramento FrontRunners is building, the group has not yet managed to overcome one perplexing problem — building membership among women.
“I think because they don’t see other women (at the club), it’s sort of a vicious cycle,” Evans-Brown said.
Still, members of the group said they are not dissuaded by the persistent struggle to diversify the gender breakdown of the FrontRunners, they will continue to work to make LGBTQ+ women runners feel welcome in the club.
“I don’t know what the key is, but I have seen, like San Francisco (FrontRunners) has done it,” Evans-Brown said. “(Women runners) have their own secure communities, but I just wish we could get more women (to join).”
The organization’s recent membership boom encouraged Sacramento FrontRunners president Nick Kobel and former leadership to launch the Pride 5K race in 2025. Though Evans-Brown and Arcos wanted to host this event for years, financial instability and difficulties gathering organizers had made it impossible.
The first 5K was an instant success — the race sold out of registrations with more than 300 runners. For this year, the group expanded the event by about 100 participants, thanks to increased sponsorship and demonstrated interest.
“This year, we were able to get support from the whole club,” Hanson said. “Last year, it was very much proven what (FrontRunners leadership) did was really fantastic.”
The 2026 Pride 5K will start at 8:40 a.m. Saturday from 111 I St. in downtown Sacramento. Race registration was sold out as of this past weekend, but a waitlist is available for interested runners if space opens up.
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