NORFOLK -- The owner of a gay bar at Wards Corner in Norfolk says she voluntarily closed it down to protect her customers from being attacked in the parking lot.
For months, Norfolk's Bar Task Force has been responding to complaints of noise, assaults and even prostitution near Nutty Buddy's on E. Little Creek Road after closing time.
Elyse Kalfus, president of the Wards Corner Business Association, worked with the city to address some of the complaints.
'It was what went on on the outside. It was the drugs and the prostitution and the sex and the poor public behavior that caused the problem,' said Kalfus.
However, a worker at Mr. M's Philly Cheese Steak, which is just a few storefronts away from Nutty Buddy's, said some of the complaints were laced with prejudice. .
'I think the community simply doesn't like that genre,' said, 'Greg.'
Kalfus says that isn't the case.
'If the gays or the transvestites had come and gone in and behaved like the customer of any other bar that behaved themselves, it wouldn't have mattered,' she contended.
The owner says she plans to re-open as a tapas restaurant as early as this weekend.
