Michele Bruno

Bruno was born in 1941 and his parents were Italian immigrants to South Africa.^[1] By 1960, Bruno was performing as a drag queen, though his day job was working as a hairdresser in Johannesburg.^[1] Bruno used male pronouns and was considered "gender-variant."^[1][2]

In 1960, Bruno was involved in the first commercial drag show at the Jewish Guild Theatre.^[1] Bruno received some infamy after being arrested for "masquerading as a woman" in the 1966 Forest Town raid.^[2] Bruno's name, along with other attendees was printed in the paper.^[3] In 1969, Bruno was named the first Miss Gay South Africa.^[2]

Bruno continued to work as a hairdresser until his death in 2016.^[1] He was one of the subjects of an exhibition at Museum Africa, "Joburg Tracks."^[4] A 1997 oral history by Bruno and an archive of materials saved by Bruno is part of the Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA) collection.^[5]