Gay bars in Milwaukee, Wisconsin are banning customers from wearing Jeffrey Dahmer Halloween costumes, because the famed serial killer preyed on his victims in the city's LGBT community.  

The convicted serial killer famously targeted the gay male community in the Wisconsin city for a decade-and-a-half in the late seventies to early nineties.  

During that time, he killed 17 men and boys, whose bodies he dismembered and sometimes ate.

Interest in the slaughter has spiked with the release of the Netflix drama Dahmer starring Evan Peters, which sparked a fresh wave of interest in the grim case. 

Those donning Dahmer get-ups will be denied entrance at LGBT watering holes D.I.X. and This Is It in the Midwest city this Halloween.

Representatives of This is It! told local channel  that despite Dahmer never having come to their bar, they have 'been getting phone calls ever since the Netflix series aired because we are the oldest LGBTQ+ bar in Milwaukee, and in the Midwest.'

'This, coupled with the popularity of the series and people on social media toying with the idea that somehow dressing up like this evil person would be a good idea, Nylabone led the bar to make a statement that such hateful and disrespectful costumes will not be allowed in our space,' they added.

Similarly, D.I.X. said it will not allow patrons dressed as Dahmer in for fear of re-traumatizing customers who lived through the killer's time-at-large.

'We understand there's a generation out there that did not live this situation, they may not understand the severity of how it affected the community,' one of the bar's managers, Eric Hamilton, told the outlet.

'We don't want to put patrons in the situation where they would have to see or relive something that they had to truly experience. That's not a costume,' he added.

Dahmer found some of his local victims at gay bars in Walker's Point, Milwaukee.

Hamilton said his bar's way of handling the situation is 'out of respect.'

'We're not here to tell you what's appropriate or get authoritarian on you, but at the end of the day, we will politely ask you that you either remove part of your costume so it will not affect anyone, or politely tell you to go to another bar,' he said.

Online patrons reacting to the bars' declarations generally voiced agreement with their decisions.

In addition to gay bars in Milwaukee, sites like Ebay have shut down the sales of Dahmer costumes this year.

While the site previously had glasses similar to the shape of Dahmer's signature lenses, as well as a tool case similar to the one Dahmer would carry and use on his victims - the site pulled those products following a public outcry, including from some of the families of Dahmer's victims.

Ebay claimed the costumes violated the company's 'violence and violent criminals policy.' 

Critics have said it's easy to fashion a makeshift Dahmer costume from a blond wig and wire-framed spectacles.  

Imitations of Jeffrey Dahmer's distinctive gold-rimmed sunglasses were available for sale online