His mother later found work in Canada as a pharmacist, leaving him and his half sister in Jamaica, though he was not accepted by his Jamaican family members due to the colour of his skin.
They later joined their mother in Canada when she could support him, and moved to the United Kingdom in 1959, following the first of the Windrush arrivals and staying homeless for a few weeks due to housing discrimination.
There, the National Front protested their residence in the area by pushing dog waste through their letterboxes and breaking their windows, causing them to move again to Greenwich.
His best friend, who he suspected was also gay, committed suicide at the age of 15 which incensed Brown to come out to his mother; she accepted him, partially due to the speeches of Bayard Rustin.
[2] Brown's mother died aged 50 on 22 November 1965 after a concurrent heart and asthma attack which she suffered in front of him and his siblings, who were sent to different children's homes.
[1] In November 1970, during a visit to the cinema to see The Boys In The Band, Brown was given a leaflet from the newly formed UK Gay Liberation Front (GLF).
[2] In 1990, he started a year-long campaign with the group against African-Caribbean tabloid The Voice which on 29 October 1991 forced it to make an apology for its coverage of Justin Fashanu, a gay footballer.
[1][5] In 2021, Brown's civil partner Noel Glynn was abused in Albany Lodge nursing home in Croydon, suffering from bruising across his body and a cigarette burn to the back of his hand.
[6][7][8] A short film documenting Brown's grief for Glynn directed by Julia Alcamo, Ted & Noel, was released in 2023 and won the Iris Prize Co-op Audience Award.