A longer version of this article was published in Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context, edited by Vern L. Bullough (2002).
Florida’s LGBTQ activists follow in the footsteps of a man that most of them never heard of. Richard Allen Inman, the Sunshine State’s first queer activist, dared to be openly and actively gay at a time when it was a dangerous thing to be. By challenging a homophobic political establishment and a closeted gay community, Inman is rightly considered to be the Father of Florida’s LGBTQ Community.
In 1969, badly burned after nearly a decade of thankless activism, Inman dropped out of sight and became a recluse. Only during the last few decades did he begin to receive the recognition that he deserved, from historians like James T. Sears and John Loughery. Sears called Inman “a soldier of fortune turned taxi driver challenging the homophobia and ignorance of heterosexuals as well as apathy and timidity among homosexuals” while Loughery called him “a voice in the wilderness.”
“Inman was the first Southerner to challenge anti-gay laws in the courts, to write in mass circulation publications about gay men and lesbians and to appear on local television and radio programs,” said the late Jack Nichols, Inman’s friend and a fellow activist.
Inman was born in Tampa in 1926 and moved to Miami during the ‘40s. Like many others of his time and place, Inman was arrested at least twice, for "simply being in a gay bar” during a raid. Undaunted, Inman founded (1963) the Atheneum Society, which according to Sears, was “the first state-chartered, explicitly homosexual organization in the South.” Created “to combat … gross injustices affecting homosexual citizens which are perpetuated by certain heterosexuals who masquerade behind the guise of ‘justice’ and decency,” the Society was basically a one-man operation. Even so, Inman benefitted from the secret but substantial financial assistance from a closeted millionaire who gave him some much-needed pocket cash.
With his Atheneum Society in tow, Inman soon became, in Sears’s words, “the lightning rod for Florida’s nonexistent homophile movement.” Claiming to represent 200K Florida homosexuals, Inman privately engaged in conversations with political leaders and waged war against State Senator Charley Johns (he of the Johns Committee) and Dade County State Attorney Richard Gerstein. Mattachine Society leaders Nichols and Franklin Kameny soon took note of this unlikely activist. Nichols and his partner Lige Clarke went down to Miami and persuaded Inman to change the name of his group to the Mattachine Society of Florida. Inman became President, Nichols Vice President, and Clarke editor of the newsletter.
On April 19, 1966 Inman appeared on television in a documentary hosted by WTVJ’s Ralph Renick. “The Homosexual” reflected the views of the day, dominated by the likes of Detective John Sorenson of the Dade County Sheriff’s Department of Morals and Juvenile Squad. Inman’s appearance was a disaster. Looking uncomfortable on camera and acting as if he had suddenly realized that acknowledging his sexuality was tantamount to admitting a crime for which he might be arrested, Inman squirmed before his interviewer’s questions, ending with the extraordinary claim that he himself had given up homosexuality four years earlier. “It’s not my cup of tea,” he said, convincing no one. Though Inman argued that gays deserved fair treatment, he giggled at the suggestion that they should be allowed to marry or adopt children.
“You weren’t exactly inspired to run out and join his organization,” a Fort Lauderdale gay man, who watched the televised debacle, said decades later. “Actually, he scared me more than the cop they had telling the eighth-graders that any one of them could become a deviant if they weren’t careful.”
Activism proved to be more than Inman could handle. In March 1967, he abolished Florida Mattachine. In October, the Miami Vice Squad raided Inman’s new business, the Atheneum Book Shop, charging him with possession of pornography (he was acquitted on a technicality). By August 1969, the Miami Herald could rightfully claim that Miami’s gay community “shows few signs of the minority group syndrome. Since the demise of the Mattachine Society of Florida ... Miami has had neither homosexual organizations nor militants. A politically docile, socially invisible subculture, it attracts little attention, and less support.” Though Inman did his best, not even the most stalwart activist could fight the forces that kept Miami’s LGBTQ community firmly in the closet.
What happened to Inman? According to Sears, “Richard Inman never returned to the activist role that he once had in Florida. He settled in a working-class area in the outskirts of Long Beach - not far from the interstate highway - where he lived until his death on 3 February 1985.” It was a sad ending for Florida’s pioneer gay activist.
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Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer, journalist, writer and activist who is a proud member of South Florida's LGBTQ+ community for almost half a century. His first regular column, "The Book Nook" (1977-2006) was syndicated in a dozen LGBT publications in the United States and Canada and was considered an authority on LGBT literature. Jesse also wrote extensively about LGBT history, plays, movies and (for Toronto's The Guide) a regular column about gay adult cinema. His current, personal opinion column, "Jesse's Journal," began its career in the 1980s and has been published or posted in numerous newspapers, magazines and websites throughout the United States. As an activist, Jesse has served on the Boards of a dozen LGBT organizations. He lives in Plantation, Florida.
