[2] His parents divorced, and his mother was subsequently married to William B. Southwick, an abusive alcoholic who lived in Cocoa Beach, Florida, for six years.

[1] Nichols lived with the uncle and aunt of Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi for three years and learned Persian.

He recalled to Owen Keehnen that, as early as 1955, he was sharing Donald Webster Cory's book The Homosexual in America with his gay friends.

[5] Nichols led the first gay rights march on the White House, in April 1965,[6] and participated in the Annual Reminder pickets at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, held each July 4 from 1965 to 1969.

He and other activists successfully lobbied the American Psychiatric Association to rescind its definition of homosexuality as a form of mental illness.

[7] The use of the name "Warren" was in deference to one of Nichols' early lovers he met when visiting his aunt and uncle in Neptune Beach, Florida, in 1961.

Due to his appearance in the documentary, Nichols was fired from his job at the International Inn located in Washington, D.C. the day after it aired.