Mentor to transgender people among Nevada’s first to die of COVID-19

Tracey Brown keeps notes in her phone to mark the times she misses him.

Sometimes she writes about specific things she misses, such as his scent, his presence in the house or going to Starbucks and ordering his drink. Other times, it’s anger that he was taken from her by a virus.

Her husband of three decades, Marty Brown, died March 31 at age 64. He was among the first 50 people in Nevada to die of COVID-19.

Marty entered MountainView Hospital on March 14. He had health issues prior to going to the hospital, including diabetes and being a dialysis patient, his wife said.

For the first several days, he wanted to go home. But after March 18, his health started to take a turn and he was having seizures and was diagnosed with meningitis, Tracey said. In his final days, he was in a coma.

For most of Marty’s time in the hospital, she could not come to visit.

“That was my worst experience in my entire life,” she said.

One last visit

Before signing paperwork to take her husband off life support, Tracey went to his room to see him one last time.

“I really wanted to make sure that if I touched him, I could tell that there was life still in his body,” she said. “I wanted to make sure he was OK. If he didn’t feel OK, I would be OK with letting him go.”

Marty was cold to the touch, she said. Early the following morning, he died.

Tracey said she did not know her husband had COVID-19 until he died.

The two met in the 1980s when they were attending Love Metropolitan Community Church in Las Vegas.

“The very first day I saw him, it was like love at first sight for me,” Tracey said.

Marty was a loving and caring person who was passionate about history and government and politics, she said. He liked science fiction and watching MSNBC. He liked animals and was generous with people.

Tracey said she loved his singing voice and the fact that they shared the same love of music.

Mentoring others

Marty made his living as a plumber, and throughout his career, he kept the fact that he was a transgender man a secret.

“You know, we were worried, even up until he retired, that if anybody found out who he was that our whole lives would be ruined,” Tracey said.

Later in life, Marty was involved in mentoring other transgender people who stopped by a drop-in center looking for a safe and welcoming place to be. He had to scale back those efforts after going on dialysis, but still kept up with people on Facebook.

When transgender rights came up in the Legislature, the couple made the trek to Carson City to break misconceptions about who transgender people are.

The Rev. Robert Fleming of Love Metropolitan Community Church said Marty was staunch in his belief that people should be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of gender identity and sexual orientation.

“The heart of his spirit is that people need to be seen for who they are without judgment,” he said.

In an effort to more thoroughly report how COVID-19 affects Southern Nevada, the Las Vegas Review-Journal wants to memorialize people who died from the disease. Share your friend or loved one’s story by visiting reviewjournal.com/covid-stories.

Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.