Bolstered by the court ruling, Redner decided the time was right to open the town's first all-nude club, the Night Gallery, in an old tavern in a sketchy part of the city, in 1976. Six years later, he put down $5,000 on a Dale Mabry bar called the Huddle (owned by a Chicago Bear) and reopened it as the Mons. Redner says all he had to do was put up a "Nude Dancing" sign to market the place. "I made my nut in the first month," he says. Today, Redner puts his net worth at $25 million, and says the Mons makes $3 million in profit each year. Tedd Webb, news-radio host on 970 WFLA in Tampa, calls Redner "one of the smartest businessmen in the area's history." Webb adds, "Joe has always tried to show people he's more than a nude-club impresario. He's beholden to nobody, and he's got a feel for what people want."

The smarts, Webb and others believe, comes from Redner's belief in the power of his customers—and himself—to take a stand. When the city passed an ordinance in 1999 requiring Mons entertainers to dance six feet from patrons, he organized a massive protest of strippers and customers, culminating with dozens of dancers testifying in court. Redner won and became an instant antihero, moving on to champion other First Amendment causes.

Redner now hosts a popular radio show, Voice of Freedom, on the public-access Tampa Bay Community Network. "Anyone who cares about the First Amendment is grateful to Joe, whether they agree with his business practices or not," says Louise Thompson, executive director of the network.

Redner's tenacity is widely known. Attorney Luke Lirot recalls the time Redner spent thousands suing the local government for not paying a $5 tab for bottled water that investigators drank while visiting his club. "I have that check right up now on my wall in a frame," Lirot says, "Joe will dedicate vast resources to protection of fundamental rights when someone [else] will just pay a $500 fine."

One of Redner's favorite targets is Ronda Storms, a Hillsborough County commissioner who fought to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood and tried to mandate sterilization for sex offenders. She succeeded in having her county adopt a policy of "abstaining from acknowledging, promoting, or participating in any recognition or events for gay pride at any time," and she battled against having gay and lesbian student clubs in high schools.

In December 2005, Redner fought back by suing the county commissioners for discrimination—and shocked his supporters by coming out as gay. Storms accused Redner of turning her cause into "a circus," and questioned his sincerity. But now even local clergy are coming to Redner's defense. Bishop Randy White, leader of Without Walls International Church, has said that Redner has "a heart for the people" and considers him "a great, great man and person of integrity." (White did not return calls for this story.)

Now that he's become renowned for his crusades, Redner hopes his latest campaign this fall finally delivers his ultimate dream: a seat in politics. But he's not giving up on his businesses anytime soon. He has plans to build a hotel along with offices and a 1,400-car parking garage. He paid $1.5 million for a Taco Bell near his strip club and is working to transform the spot into a Spanish restaurant. This fall, he'll be opening his own brewery, Cigar City Brewing, named for the town's famous cigar industry.

"Almost everything that makes a successful business person is common sense," he says, "especially in fields they have no expertise in. And most of the time what I'm doing is going against the common perception, the way things are perceived to be by [the] majority."