NEW YORK — A Brooklyn bar owner says he has been battling his landlord for more than a year to turn his establishment into a gay bar, but that his lease specifically prohibits a gay bar from operating on the premises.
John McGillion says he wants to transform Lulu’s to take advantage of a growing gay and lesbian community in his Brooklyn neighborhood, and estimates that his failing bar could attract “40 to 50 percent” more business as a gay establishment, reports The New York Post.
“I am barely scraping by on the proceeds of the bar … If I am permitted to operate a gay bar at the premises I believe that I will be able to make a considerable profit,” McGillion said in Brooklyn Supreme Court papers filed last week.
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Bars catering to gay customers have a big upside, McGillion says: “They do well because you don’t have issues of fighting. They’re nice people, they’re wonderful to deal with. It’s easier.”
McGillion is asking a judge to declare the controversial lease clause invalid.