I’ve heard it said that it’s actually because of Bruce Wayne (all that flitting around in tights and a cape, I suppose) and goes back to at least the early 60s, but I have no cite and am not sure I buy it. It’s been my experience that these things go back waaaaay farther than you think.
He cuts down trees. He eats his lunch.
He goes to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays he goes shopping
And has buttered scones for tea.
Band name!
I have encountered the same suggestion that Exapno Mapcase mentioned in the thread Tucker linked–that the usage was based on Batman, of all things. The usage appears to have been established in the 1960s. In 1954, Fredric Wertham published The Seduction of the Innocent, a rather vicious attack on comic books that made much of the supposed gay relationship between Bruce Wayne and Dick Ward. The idea might have fallen off the radar if it weren’t for the wave of extreme camp that washed over the franchise; certainly the introduction of the TV in early 1966 didn’t help, but the comics were downright bizarre as well. So, you have one extremely well-known figure named “Bruce”–on one of the top ten shows on TV–who is thought of (with varying degrees of seriousness) as gay. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine the name being adopted to refer to the gay stereotype.
Mid 70’s. I know because I saw it in the very same place. The payoff line was that while the characters were explaining this, there was a TV in the background. The voiceover from the TV said, “Genner has won the declathon. Bruce is the manliest man in the world!” or somesuch.
The first I noticed it was in the late 60’s on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. You couldn’t openly mention homosexuality on TV back then, but it was understood that if you called somebody “Bruce”, that meant he was gay. So there were lots of “gay” jokes about this guy Bruce. I think the name Bruce was chosen ironically, because it’s actually kind of a tough, masculine-sounding name.
The bruce phenomenon has been over for a long time, though. I don’t think I’ve heard a bruce joke since the mid-seventies (except that I think Johnny Carson may have stayed with it a bit longer).
Robin’s secret identity was Dick Grayson, Balance.
I stand by the “Adam and Steve” reference, Matt. It was supposed to have partial identification with “Adam and Eve.”
The first time I heard of a character named Julius was when a ventriloquist named Skipper Frank hosted a cartoon show in the fifties, on Los Angeles TV. Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar made much more of an impression on me than the TV character did, when we read the play in the sophomore year of high school; we started calling the play “Julie babe” when it was time to take the play up in class again. 
And the courage of Robert the Bruce to which I alluded in the OP should suffice to dispel any hint of an unfortunate stereotype. 
I know, and my point is that I hear “Adam and Steve” references all the time, and I remember “Adam and Bruce” because it wasn’t “Adam and Steve”. Cite
Yeah, to David Banner. This was right around the time Bruce Jenner and Bruce Lee were considered the greatest athlete and martial artist in the world, mind you.
This is very interesting to me. I never thought about why Bruce is a stereotypical gay name.
I have a cousin named Bruce who is a gay hairdresser. He’s a wondeful person!
:eek: