A wave of new LGBTQ+-centered run clubs has emerged over the past two years in cities across the U.S., U.K., and Canada, part of a broader running boom but with a distinct focus: building queer community and countering isolation rather than optimizing performance.

In New York City, run clubs including QRB, Dyke Run NYC, and Queer Feet Run Club all launched in 2024 and have grown into active social hubs, joining the city’s longstanding Front Runners New York, founded in 1979. In Houston, personal trainer Emma Weyand and co-founder Itzel Ibarra launched Revival Run Crew in May 2025, building a pace-inclusive club that has grown to more than 80 members. In Toronto, Queer Run Club has organized itself around three explicit goals: connecting people to queer space generally, to queer athletic space specifically, and to the broader running and fitness community. In London, Queer Running Club used a £5,000 grant from Pride in London’s Unity Fund to host what organizers described as Hackney’s first queer- and trans-only running event, aimed at spotlighting how trans and nonbinary runners are treated in mainstream sport and running spaces.

The trend arrives alongside data suggesting queer and trans people may be under-connected to organized fitness generally: a 2016 study by the National LGBT Partnership found that more than half of LGBT adults were not active enough to maintain good health, a gap researchers and club organizers attribute in part to feeling unwelcome in traditional gym and running spaces. Club founders interviewed across multiple cities described similar motivations — creating spaces where members can bring their full identity to a fitness activity without having to choose between the two.